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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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MAMMAL, 

ONLY; OR, 
THE EEVOLT OF EEASON: 

A 

POEM, 



BY 



/ 



JOHN EDWARD HOWELL. 



. -^^ OF ( ;. 
COPYRIGHT EDITION. /-^ c^''"^^' ^^> Hi* n 




NEW YORK : 9/; U \ 

THE HOWELL PUBLISHING COMPANY, '^ ^ ^ 

35 & 37 VESEY ST. 

SOIjD by Alili BOOKSELLERS. 

All Orders, thro' the Mail, or otherwise, from Booksell 

ers and Dealers, will be promptly filled by the 

Company, observing their priority. 

MPCCCXCII, 







^nW^ 



Entered, according tx) Act ot Congress, In the yeai 

1892, by 

JOHN EDWARD HOWEIjIi, 

In the Office of the Librarian ol Congress, at 

Washington, D. 0. 



copies and reproductions. 

Page. 

Solomon's Temple 31 

Jesus 52 

Jerusalem 78 

Eome 79 

A Knight (Drawing X Vth Century) 80 

A Tournament (Drawing XVth Century).. 81 

Charlemagne 82 

Martin Luther 89 

Francis Bacon 90 

Battle of Crecy (Drawing XVth Century).. 134 

A Sea Fight (Drawing XVth Century) 135 

Galileo Galilei 137 

Dr. Johnson's Wedding 146 

Christopher Columbus 164 

Queen Isabella 165 

Palos 166 

San Salvador 167 

Battle of Bunker Hill 168 

George Washington 169 

Julius Caesar 190 

Medina 195 



A 
MAMMAL, 

NLY. 



—The mystery 
Nature affects is what it ever was, 
To man's perceptions ; all whose progress lies 
In having come to broadcloth ; all his worth, 
In searching for his brother ; back of mun, 
Before him, silence. Forces rearing man 
Are tedious as eternity ; in haste 
To no occasion— and the universe. 
Without beginning, hastens to no end; 
Scarce yet reduced, to smear an axletree 
With th' unguents of re-motion. Equity 
Is man's invention, to salve legal wounds ; 
Law's the broad word, in every planet's mouth, 
Wliile every insect must have heard of it. 

—Man may not ignore 
Himself, the supreme factor, in this world, 
But lay all wagers on him ; it is he 
Hath pushed along discovery, or life 
Were telling couries yet, whose numerals 
Had charged an error, slighter than a hair. 
On Nature's geariug. 

—Of that awful Force, 
Distilling musk for flowers and vernal dyes 
For wistful forests ; seen in bird and bee 
So sweetly joyous ; sentient in all life. 
Vile or innocuous— what a volume, man's 
Equipt to treat it? 

—From less to more, the law of life proceeds, 
From brutish craft to calm intelligence, 
Throned in the primate, man— who in the "Wjomb 
Displays a fish's, then a reptile's brain, 
And last, a mammal's ; whence falls clearer 

light 
On Nature's methods than a thousand tomes 
Of a priori lore had shed thereon. 
Long, Nature wrestled to arrive at man 
Whereat she seems to halt; who knows for 

why? 



16 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Life set out with a stomach, ere a brain ; 
Which antedates the genius of the crab. 
His brain, aside, the sea outdazzles man 
In denizens, e'en, microscopic up 
With hues transcending lite in earth or sky. 
Man's if a language, every beast hath his 
Signal or interjection— savages 
Partake of and enjoy, with slight advance. 
Culture but makes man perfect, who by signs 
He hath devised may well perpetuate 
His passing thoughts ; whence song and chron- 
icle, 
Thence sound induction, by a godlike brain, 
Sprung of a Ivaifir's. 
—Imagination feathers dolorous wings 
In the thick adr of horrors, like the bat. 
Saturnine and nocturnal ; to the light 
Drowsy, dis-souled ; by the moon-haunted tower 
Flitting with witches' curses in her teeth. 
Religion, for the sake of fixed belief, 
Has held man back from thinking, and is yet 
Pointing his eye to Mecca, or some shrine 
Tradition may hold sacred ; man so dead 
To credo, dubito may resurrect. 
To cherish a delusion hath the effect 
Dae to a comfit, while the sweetness lasts 
To charm the palate. Miracles appeal 
To th' jury sat to try them, less to faith, 
Brainless as the mountain sorel ; it most true, 
When man comes to his senses he shall find 
His senses are correct. 

—No north wind were free 
That had reserved the right to inflict a wrong, 
And once h?.d made the option ; liberty 
Is motion denied power to perpetrate 
An evil or abet one ; a sweet breeze 
Blown man-ward, over thyme and honeywort, 
Still sweeter for the hearthstones it hath swept. 
Liberty is the spirit of all law, 
And not its letter ; while all servitude 
Turns to the wall, pierced by one ray of light : 
All rights of human nature but the laws 
That human nature grows by. 
—Man is a liar, who in infancy 
Was a prolific liar, seems the kej' 
To startling facts in ])istory, that loom 
This like a Jungfrau, that a Matterhorn. 
The supernatural is not above. 
But below reason yet ; for th' fabulous. 
No law but laughter, and no other rule 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 17 

Treats it so frankly or so cleverly. 

No virtue in a man\s sincerity, 

Who thinks a stone a god and worships it; 

So are the anthropophagi sincere 

In th' choice of viands. 

—Faith like a vampire hath but sucked the 

blood 
Of all the ages, known by the myriad names 
That fancy gives her own monstrosity : 
While a swift river of man's daily sweat 
EoUs past his gnawing stomach to quench liell, 
Her uttermost abstraction ; poverty, 
Her child, legitimate as any birth 
In honest wedlock. 

—To man's traditions thought is dangerous, 
Yet bullets harmless ; there was never change, 
Not of opinion, that was not a truce 
To pick a flint in. Truth is not a thing 
Fire may consume, or water drown, or blows 
Eeduoe to atoms— fear for it were vain. 
As were concern lest great Apollo tire 
And drop his lighted torch. 
—Thwacks bear historic instance in them, dealt 
'Twixt the wide peeling eyes of Jove or Pan, 
In ot?ier monsters' foreheads ; since it seems 
Time's custom to repeat a comedy 
Till the world's stomach heaves ; thereat to 

drown 
In blood the footlights. History is yet 
Brief, foreclosed eras of man's piety. 
That witness coarse inventions. What, to proof 
Hath man clear knowledge of ho would forget, 
Would even dare deny ? Wherein, a corpse, 
The Past inspires man's reverence, in the fact 
It breathed, his ancestor : yet reverence done. 
Each filial tear is dry ; wherein the Past 
Doth by conspicuous worth en sample man, 
Hers, the arch -trick of heraldry, that hath 
All men's delighted homage : character 
Is that, man, most, aspires to, at his best ; 
That, at his worst, most feared. If irony 
Erewhile, mistook her office, she hath learned 
Her duty is man's culture; if he laugh 
He hath digestion ; if he formulate 
His humor he hath vantage. 

Sorcery 
Is out of fashion, with man's intellect 
Except, for sheer amusement ; so, what worth 
To science, m a thesis on a bone, 
Marrowless as the arm of Jupiter? 



18 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Destiny is the loom that harlequins 

Do weave their jests in— while the cowards 

dread 
It, the brave man's incentive : destiny- 
Is but Chaldea in her seven spheres. 
Yet, damning human reason, covertly. 
The pure mechanics of the busy spheres 
Find parallel in the unswerving course 
Of human action : law, inflexible, 
In God and man and nature, congruous. 
—Man is no infant of six thousand years ; 
An adult, rather, with millenniums. 
Affecting hundreds— who has seen the poles 
And th' Tropics exchange offices ; tlie Sea 
And th' Land close overtures of mutual gain : 
In whose survivals, or revivals, that 
Which polished his coarse pate into the brow 
Whence beameth this world's lord. 

Age hath no reverence for its own sake. 

But for good deeds ; for ill, it hath man's scorn 

With his accruing contumely enough 

To sink a ship o' war— 0, the turpitude 

Of having writ man— evil ; innocent 

In right of nature as the elements 

His flesh is made of ; it so palpable, 

Anger and hatred, selfishness, distrust, 

Are all man's properties, not bred in him 

Of any devil, but in common his 

With other mammals— O, that laughter grew 

Instead of leaves on forest trees, and man 

Had surfeited and mended— a sad fool 

No lusty humor in him ! 

—To what eminence 
Man may ascend, when to autonomy 
Committed, frankly, hath no prophesy, 
Since man hath scarcely broken fast, escaped 
From thraldom in the night ; few colors, his, 
Tho' he hath bunting waiting for his pluck 
To fly it, to foul weather. 

Men are evolving painfully the art 
Of thriving side by side ; whose annals yet 
Eecord much friction; to extract his fangs 
And make a savage, social— uppermost 
In politics, as ever. 
—Statutes to equalise all pocketbooks 
Had come of arson, murder, anarchy ; 
Yet penury and riches, should these wed, 
Who had not kissed the bride ? Nature doth not 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 19 

Compel him to desist, who hath enough 

From hoarding her choice gifts; nor to the 

weak 
Doth she loan brain or muscle, but has cast 
A scramble to mankind of all her gold, 
And seems t' enjoy it ; avarice is mad, 
While reason may not assert sanity. 
Where it hath never been. 
—The cause is lost that proves its moral pov/«.'r 
Thro' firing padlocks at the negative. 
Take nothing from the rich, had left them poor ; 
Yet from the poor take what had left them rich ; 
The rich may have too little, while the poor 
May have laid by too much. 
—Justice makes good the pledges of her furs 
In luminous 'exceptions ; who concedes 
On vellum, with sharp emphasis, the rights 
01 poverty and riches, and confronts 
A trespass on the weak, with stripes and 

pains. 
Here, she acquits herself of duty well; 
Here, too, her scales do balance to a hair ; 
Yet when she has a felon by the ear. 
She sometimes fails to brand him, lets him 

slip. 
For reasons less in proof than in surmise; 
Yet, was it justice did it, or the knave 
Who wrenched her lucid text ? Thus it appears 
That palpable as Justice is not she. 

—Men are stung t' inquire 
Is Justice such a fiction, gold may leer 
At jury, bench and scaffold, in her hand 
The dripping knife she did her murders with ? 
O, man ; O, God— what argument herein 
For headlong reformation ? 

In plebeian vein 
The gods have spurted their blood, furtively; 
Autonomy seems so unnatural. 
Races prepare for it, as wrestlers must, 
For bays, in the arena : Anarchy 
Is man, unreasoned, from an animal, 
Into expediency, which he accepts. 
His, light enough, to honor thine and mine. 
Conscience is an election of the mind. 
That helms it into instant harmony, 
Struck by dilemmas ; and as each man's flag 
To shield his person signals to mankind, 
The soil whereof he is indigenous. 
Error pales seldom at the sight of blood. 
Or to the smell of powder ; time and oft 



M A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Man has betrayed effeminate love for peace 
To brawny disputation, the mute air 
Transfixt to jugglers' batons : men must think 
Tho' all the guns of the world's armament, 
At point-blank range forbade it. 

Chuck man under the chin 
Till he glance upward, the chop-fallen wretch, 
As if he had done murder. 
—Wherever man appears he seems to smack 
Of life about him as if Nature had 
Begot him with an eye to fitness there. 
Thus, the orang touches man in a tender spot, 
E'en his sensorium, and the shame-faced man 
Owns, in this primate, a near congener ; 
Yet, wherefore, blush— the kinship is divine, 
Or Nature had declined it? 

With knowledge of what is, man were com- 
plete ; 
Thence had few bays to pluck : from the 

unseen. 
If it exist, man's knowledge is cut off 
As clean as by a cleaver : nothing is 
To man he may not know of. Nature means 
B^v limitations his, to perfect man 
Thro' knowledge seized within them; who has 

found 
His higher life is to discover this; 
Whose, if concern with the invisible. 
He had not been born, blind. 
— Wliat anything in essence is, who knows? 
A leaf had argued quite as plausibly, 
Why, found the shape it is as man had done. 
Why, found in form and function, as he is. 
Do not despise an atom ; it is more 
Than reason, yet hath mastered with the aid 
Of science and all art: thro' the minute 
Nature reveals her power— whose purposes 
Atoms, invisible have inklings of; 
Atoms, no pack has yet bayed fairly home. 
No microscope, indeed, has settled where 
Tntelhgence begins. Science insists 
That somewhere, somehow, consciousness sur- 
prised 
Well-tutored atoms; altho' how appears 
A Sphinx with bloody fangs, Oedipus yet 
May drive to suicide. 

—God is a word, man ventured to his lack 
Of broader knowledge— just as spirit proves 
A term of isheer convenience ; knowledge man's 



THE REVOLT OP REASON. 21 

Deductions by his brain, from Nature's course, 
He glimpses daily and consumes the night 
Skirting her area with fresh telescopes. 
Man learns from what he sees, from what 

beside ? 
In his emotions, but the changeful moods 
Fancy makes what she will of. 
—Man, undisputed. Nature's masterpiece. 
Yet she transcends all art confest in him. 
In every eye, of every trilobite; 
While huge cetacians thrive a thousand years 
On animalcules each most masterful 
In its eq.uipment : She, with diatoms 
Gorging sea-monsters, thence resolves to pave. 
Sea bottoms with them ; e'en whose polops 

sweat 
Founded the Isles of Balm and Land of Flowers 
—Against experience common to mankind 
Man had accepted Aristoteles, 
And Plato, arguing— ere science rose 
Challenging either doughty Hellenist. 
A war is brewing unlike any war 
In all man's history ; a war between 
That state man finds himself in and a state 
Alleged as man's hereafter ; the demand 
For proofs invincible that sta+o e.xists; 
Unproven, to thence cease to create hope 
Or inspire terror ; so, apparent, man 
Bears no relation to a future life 
In his decaying elements. No guns. 
No navies like opinion, to the place 
Of autocrat, ascended; it may spare 
Thrones to dismiss them gentlj- ; may compel 
Allegiance to inflict it on an age, 
More fitly to rebuke it : to dispel 
Doubt may enlist it by the sword to wage 
War on conventions. 

Thus, the ancient's dream 
Of Heaven as the safe pocket of the soul. 
Were well translated, free intelligence 
Climbing her superb destiny, and Hell, 
When she has lost her footing and falls plump 
Downward, degrees unknown. 

— Eeverence 
And not the object reverenced has made 
Shrines holy and men pagans : once have done 
With that which was not, is not, shall not be 
Confronted with what is, man's history 
Thence, proving true, were hence, most 
masterful . 



22 A MAMMAL ONL^y. 

Man's quarrel with the past is to grow wise 
Thro' disputation, rather than by blows. 
Nature, in a dilemma, is a lie 
Gudgeons have swallowed and do snap at 

stiU. 
Man wants no sacred fictions, seeks the truth ; 
Had oxygen itself betrayed a god. 
The fact must be allowed : the crucial test 
But, proof, supreme, of what is true or false. 
God may have left some signs, upon the rocks. 
But none on vellum— who has slain no Idd 
For his integument, whereon to pen 
Advices to mankind. Tho' chemistry 
Be Nature's own conception of a God, 
As Nature feels Him, yet man's intellect 
Would introduce the chemist : Ah ! to know 
A drop of water were to share God's throne. 

—Form and shape 
Man's instincts seize on, while diffusive power, 
Formless, seems vague, to his intelligence. 
God wears, to man, a form, man feels hath 

none ; 
His reason, to the rescue of his sense. 
What message had the Infinite for man ? 
Or, wishing man, bon voyage, doth He hide. 
Lest man may founder ? Or, amidships, stood, 
Doth beckon the foul winds to serve him best, 
The straining hulk gone down— some bubbles 

left, 
Witnessing God, not man, in foundering ships ? 
Herein, is summed up all the mystery 
Man yearns to know, which, known, had argued 

him 
God's fellow, tho' no peer. 

That false distinction, between rich and poor. 
Is th' mischief wrought of gold, tho' charged 

on God ; 
Penury, thus, divine; yet, were it so, 
Appeal to God were to man's enemy. 
Man wants no sweet delusion, as a salve. 
For the sharp ills of life, but, verities, 
A stoic, to his pangs. A lie must fall, 
Tho', God had set it up : the argument 
Of reason is, that, false, is lawful game 
E'en, at aU seasons, for a clever shot. 
Man thrives not, to the fiction, he is not, 
But, to the fact, he is a mortal man : 
To tack a pagan fancy, to his life. 
Proves, hut, a sorry tail, to fly it, past 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 23 

A yawning yraveyard : long, to live and thrive, 
Let all desire it, who live uprightly ; 
So, let them test all aliments and herbs, 
For the medication, in them. Fashion seems 
The humor of the hour and always yields 
A profit, to conformity : if slight, 
The pleasure, it affords, still, all mankind 
Have courted Fashion, with assiduous zeal, 
Ere, yet, Olympus shook with all the Gods, 
Ere. Isis and Osiris laid the keel 
Of Egypt's fortunes— to whatever God, 
May rule the middle air, this Goddess holds 
All hearts, in charmed thrall : and were it, yet, 
In vogue, to honor Jove, still, Jove were God. 
So England conquers India, yet, caste. 
In sacerdotal molds, her countless Gods. 
—Ours, a recovered world, were, one, redeemed 
Of human reason, from th' atrocious crimes 
Of human fancy ; man, so competent 
To live a higher, in a better life. 
Facing the fact, his, but, one life to live. 
It, tho', a brief one, than, to be misled, 
By the cruel expectation, of one, more. 
The cardinal virtues, culture, of the arts 
Of love, of friendsMp, of good neighborhood, 
Is man's distinction o'er the quadruped 
He hath so distanced, thinking, on the way. 
Man's bold mistake is loss of blood to God, 
Who much prefers his veins had not been 

prickt ; 
Man, a barbarian, still, whom reason plies 
With all her birches. Why, man's altars, run 
With bloo^ in rivers, is, because they are 
Man's altars and no God regardeth them. 
All sacred books prove the high-water mark 
Of morals, where, man penned them— otherwise 
They had no flavor, if, not, of the soil. 
Whence, they have sprung and naturally, 

thence, 
As, its own flora. Fancy, any soil, 
Or person may make holy ; evidence 
Must so pursue a God, that disbelief 
Were, as impossible, as, to accept 
A counterfeit a God— to every Age, 
The proof, stm, fulgent. 
—In all authentic time, not, an event 
In the affairs of men, but had its source 
In ^ason, or unreason ; everything. 
In Nature, may be sacred, perhaps is ; 
Nothing, by special unction : moral power 



'24 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Moves to the forces, that inaugurate 
The sway of reason, which, like gravity, 
Half, unexplained, accomplish destiny. 
With, never, portent, miracle, or sign. 
Power, men hail spiritual, is the force 
Of the imagination, and to faith, 
May, e'en, suggest the presence of a God. 
Spirit, but, man's assumption, to sustain 
A theological hypothesis. 

—Belief 
Has been a problem, more, of policy, 
Than, of conviction ; and to culture, man 
Hath, of his reason, quite ignored the Gods, 
He tendered genuflexions, in the eyes 
Of th' gaping multitude : what, to undo, 
Be man's first query, which, when, ascertained 
His, were not much to do, but, to grow wise, 
Gently, thereafter. Conscience is that fact 
Of insubordination to all power, 
There seems no penal statute, yet, of force 
To j burn, behead, or gibbet: conscience oft 
Whatever, men may think, to, bravely, do, 
To opportunity. 

Christ is an argument ; He, if a man. 

All pledges are man's pledges, by that faith, 

Which, the arms of Rome, imposed upon the 

West. 
Reason accepts the God, who may sustain 
The test, whereto, she puts him, tho', her own ; 
Since, all appeal, to reason, comes, at last. 
Thus, Reason invokes Egypt, who so far 
Antedates Moses , it was at her torch 
The Hebrew lit his own, to argue God, 
Or, vindicate Him, by declaring, false, 
What premises are credited His lips. 
So, she precedes all gods, whereof, we read, 
Tl'en, in her prime ; while, nations, before her 
Have left no monuments : nor proof appears 
Of whence, she sprang, or, when, or, how, she 

rose. 
Who stood, magnificent, beside the Nile, 
When Time passed by and kissed her : Egjrpt's 

fame. 
Alone, archaic, in man's history. 
The Hebrew, but her product. Moses' grave 
If J Moses have one, were a tumulus 
Like one, half grass-grown, by the village kirk. 
Named, with the first man's, found along the 

Nile. 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 25 

Still, Kgypt had no memory of when 

Time hackt the earlier notches on his stick. 

The endless chain, of history is lost. 

Since, there be trees, as old as history, 

Were history the fragment we have found. 

Antiquity is what man, yet may find, 

Not, man's brief recoid, backv/ard, with the 

wax. 
Of Egypt's mummies, sealed. 
—Never, since Egypt, has there breathed a 

king 
Merged in his office ; government, as hers. 
Inverted his who said— I am the State, 
In training every monarch, how to serve : 
Who lived, but, for the State; his wine, doled 

out. 
His pleasures, meted to him : absolute. 
Yet, of all Egypt, most submiss to law. 
—What, Egypt had not, of the Hebrew, had. 
Were, unregretted, of the Hebrew, lost. 
Egypt, tho', scarce, dishonored, of the Jew, 
Seems slighted, in memorials of her worth. 
Since, half, the blood of Israel, was her own. 
If Egypt and Chaldea were the source 
Of Hebrew inspiration— yet, the text 
Of the Crea,tion, Flood and Decalogue 
As, found, recorded, may have been the wor 1. 
Of later Ages, e'en, of David's own. 
From meagre data, writing Israel, 
With backward sweep, past the Hebrew 

exodus. 

A primal, uncaused Being, absolute, 

Omnific, sole— Him, nothing, else, beside. 

Who, by a word, creates a Universe 

Of, simply, nothing ; who, to magnify 

His glory visits an inferior orb. 

With conscious life, in th' image of his own, 

Innocent, pure and holy ; yet, permits 

A serpent to entice it, to do ill ; 

Then, gives to death, th' heavenly type that 

erred. 
With all, unborn, that, thence, should e'er 

proceed, 
Tho', in a universe, a billion orbs, 
Like ours, omitted, had scarce shrunk the sum 
Of half the spheres, therein— 'tis pertinent. 
What had the stomach of man's reason done 
If, tempted with such viands, served, to her 
jFoT the first time, to-day? 



26 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

—A Silent world proves Nature holds her 

tongue, 
Whose pile had tottered, stood on— let light be ; 
Supreme Mechanics, all that reared the pile, 
All, that, yet, prop it. 
—What God were such, as, of the Hebrew, 

limned. 
With features, sharp and pinched, with fore- 
head, low. 
Demeanor, Asiatic— save, a God, 
Then, level with man's genius? Thus, the 

myth 
Marked, by each incident of child-like- thought 
Of the untutored ages of the race. 
Inflicts the pains of travail ; takes from sweat 
The honor, due it, over all the globe. 
E'en from a tropic savage. Ho, his pen. 
Who left the tale, on record, cast the facts 
That much perplexed his ignorance at God, 
Couched, in a curse from Heaven : the subtle 

snake 
Doomed, thence, to crawl, that, ever, had but, 

crawled— 
To feed on dust, it hath not fed on, yet 
Still, in batrachians, its supreme delight, 
Its sweet seductive voice, th' ancestral hiss: 
Tho', th' fabulist assumes, that man and beast 
Spake but one language and in harmony 
Dwelt, socially, on a, yet, sinless sphere ; 
While, as the innocent Josephus hints. 
Beasts became, after the first trespass, dumb. 
—Enmity was not put, by Deity 
Between the woman's and the serpent's seed; 
The deadly, venomous reptile had provoked 
Man's dread and prompted him to bruise its 

head. 
Lest, in his heel, the snake had struck its 

fangs. 
Instinctive, ere the fable's date, as since. 
A literal significance, alone. 
All, the text warrants : for, a fact if true, 
That, most significant, in history. 
Had been, as, clearly written, as— MAN FELL. 
—Man having eaten, did not, surely, die; 
Mortal, before he ate, as afterwards, 
A mandate were superfluous— thou shalt die; 
Who, gently, had unbidden : life and death 
Already, here, disputing mastership. 
—Yet, in some plain and unambiguous words, 
Ages, of zealous scholarship, have sought 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 27 

A sense, involving human destiny : 
A falsehood, colored by rare craftsmanship, 
With all the hues of truth, were paralleled 
By Art that hlched the marble, she hath 

wrought 
Into the breathing bust. 
—In Serpent worship, prehistoric times 
Abounded vastly— it, anterior, 
To the Semitic record, Genesis ; 
Eemote, in origin as any fact, 
Not, geologic, it, well, antedates 
Tho' current with, extant theology. 
Whence, voodooism, in repulsive forms. 
Fetishes, from Cape Horn to Labrador, 
While, va.st accessions of analogy, 
In charms, in totems, spells and amulets. 
Pain the explorer's eye, in Africa. 
To th' Serpent, than t(» any God, beside. 
More superstitions, altars, devotees. 
—The Serpent, when, not worshipt, was ab- 
horred. 
Semitic and Aryan fable deal 
Alike, with the shrewd reptile ; while the Greek 
Dwells on his malice and him, Hercules 
Slew, in the Garden of th' Hesperidcs. 
Man seems expelled from Eden, less, for siu, 
Than, that he grazed the side of Deity. 
— The first-born of mankind, a murderer 
Remits the legend's source, to savagery : 
To a begotten monster, every leaf 
In Paradise had withered, with each flower, 
Eden, itself, not, an incongruous myth. 
Man's fall was a cant, upward, and not down, 
His blood ennobled of the fruit, he ate : 
Knowledge, of good and evil, implies both, 
Not, evil, only, man's. 

—Man ventures to do right, wont, to do ill, 
As, if, his bent were evil— is this so ? 
Or, is it a coarse fiction ? Cultured man 
Argues the point and brands it, as, most false ; 
Uncultured man hails tho tradition true, 
A shield, to skulk behind, his evil, done. 
The act of man was such a startling feat, 
As, to inspire the Gods with jealousy ; 
Whose, but, one more achievement, possible, 
And Godship had surprised him : such appeara 
The honest substance of the Eden myth. 
—The Sun began to reign at an early day 
Too 'early, to seek when— ere th' primate man 
Appeared, arriving, by some trackless trail. 



'28 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Science may wait, yet, forty centuries, 

To boast a Cosmos, if each solar day 

She solves some problem, to principia, 

That defy challenge. 

—Vengeance and hatred, cited, oft, as God's, 

Are but man's moral lineaments transferred 

To broader canvas; as, if, magnitude 

Made just, in God, such vices, as in men, 

Are execrable : from like premises. 

Came the Noachic Flood, the blood -and smoke 

Of all man's altars. 

—Sinai, Olympus, Meru show to faith. 

The footprints of their Gods, still, visible. 

Hebraic poets are God's oracles 

As, faith construes them : but, as reason holds, 

Tho' less, than Homer, like Aryan bards. 

Mystical, when, prophetic, as, the voice 

Of Delphos, or Dodona. 

— Ashera, Linga, Phallus are, all one, 

A Hindoo, Hebrew, Greek or Eoman God, 

In Egypt's Apis, veiling nudity : 

Yet, current with material splendor, such 

Was man's religion ; he with reason, oft. 

Ours, or, for emulation. 

Fatuity would dredge the Eed Sea, yet, 

For th' chariot wheels of th' Pharaoh swampt 

therein. 
Instead, of searching, for that, fabulous, 
That, true, in the Hebrew's annals of himself. 
Tacitus saith Vespasian healed the blind, 
Yet, Tacitus writes, falsely : so, 'tis said, 
Of Alexander, the Pamphylian Sea 
Divided, to him; false, Josephus, too: 
As false the annals, whence, he boasts or would 
A parallel to the Hebrew exodus. 
Yet, Strabo with Arrian, o'er the bay. 
Pass Alexander, with both horse and foot. 
Breast-high, in water, to prevailing winds. 
—Migrating tribes, with predatory aims. 
Or, the expulsion of a race, itself, 
With means of transit, both o'er land and sea 
A Pharaoh had promoted, may be facts 
When, naked, true, when clothed in fable, 

false. 
They, who had entered Eg^T3t, peacefully, 
So, may have left, with Pharaoh's blessing, 

theirs ; 
A swarm of bees, escaped th' ancestral hive, 
Light ing, unwearied, in a wilderness. 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 29 

Of valor, hived on Canaan's bloody soil. 
If, to a miracle, th' arm of the sea 
Had been divided, with its waters piled, 
On either hand, in heaps— there scarce, haa 

been 
A monarch, so demented, as to test 
The power, of th' Hebrew's God, to close the 

gap, 
Inopportunely. 

—Doubling the head of Suez, to have passed, 
Dry-shod, into the wilderness— how tit ? 
How likely, too? Tho' fancy cleft the sea, 
Arguing flight, in them, whose sires had sought 
Wlien famine-stricken, Egypt's pasturage. 
Egypt has left no hint, a Moses was ; 
Whose own faint verdict, Time begins to 

doubt. 
The blood of the Egyptian has not dried, 
Him, no man near, Moses slew cowardly 
And buried in the sand; yet meekness may 
Sprout and smell sweet from an assassin's 

brow. 
Moses and Aaron, tho', half mythical, 
For craft and shrewdness have no parallel ; 
In whom, Egyptian magic culminates. 
As, supreme factor, in their leadership. 
Of semi-savage tribes, athirst for blood. 
Their act, the tithe, laid, ever, on man's 

sweat. 
Craft, from th' Eg5^ptian priesthood cleverly 
Grafted, in Israel's. To credulity, 
A babe, at th' breast, to-day, had nigh re- 
buked 
Their affectation of the marvelous,' 
Proceeded, duly. 

—Of Jethro's j^earnings, sprang the moral law 
While, the fable that attended it, betrays 
The skill of the Hebraic fabulist. 
Who, with like ease had set the bush afire, 
Had shook Mt. Sinai, rocking to its base : 
So, Manna, fabled, to have rained, from 

Heaven 
Yet, from the tamarisk, may strew the ground 
To th' changed conditions of four thousand 

years. 
While, idle, listless, lazy monks, their bread. 
Smear, on Mt. Sinai, with like manna still. 
—The Cloud and Fire report to cleverness. 
In Eastern magic, be the prodigies 
Not, sheer inventions : every master stroke 



30 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Of policy, appealed to spells and charme, 
When, stress was laid on the magician's 

wand; 
For, th' oriental had no history 
But, for the thread of magic, half, th' events, 
Of all his chronicles, are strung upon : 
Sorcery, thus, the life-blood of the East ; 
The God, alone, whence, all her prodigies. 
Egypt's, Chaldea's, Persia's, India's art. 
Of feigning, to do what, each doth not do. 
Done, to the cheated eye, so cleverly. 
Has brought the curse of magic to our day. 
In the bazar and by the wayside, still. 
The Eastern juggler plies the marvelous ; 
His sleight is theirs, performing miracles. 
Five thousand years ago, in Chaldea, 
Wherein the annals are not fabulous, 
Of orient magic. 

—Dead every exile from Egyptian soil; 
Dead, his successors, for a thousand years, 
Who had not, of the fiery pillar, wrote, 
AiS, of the cloud, as veritable facts? 
Whatever, Fancy would, the annalist 
Of Moses, penned, of Korah— which, 'tis ours, 
To credit, stricture, or, quite disallow. 
Two years of fabulous chronicles, the Jew 
Eeturns, for forty, in the wilderness ; 
Forty, more cabalistic, than, exact: 
Two years, enough, wherein, to whet his steel, 
For conquest, unprovoked and barbarous. 
The Jew is, thus, th' Egyptian, to a tent. 
Forging his weapons, in the wilderness, 
Athirst, for merciless war. 
—Fierce Nomads, with no love of country, 

theirs. 
Set forth, to ravage Canaan, as, the Huns, 
Late, ravaged Europe, to the shibboleth, 
Jehovah's with us— which Hebraic brass. 
Time hath, somehow, transmuted into gold; 
The craft of Moses, thro' a priestly caste, 
Lost, in prodigious reverence. 

The vines of Eshcol had displayed to-day, 
To the like culture, grapes, such, as the spies 
Affect, to lug, laborious from their quest : 
It, but, a ruse, to edge the thirst for blood : 
The clusters, fabulous, as are the grapes. 
Famed in the Talmud. 

Ere, hailed Chaldea, dwellers on her plains, 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 3l 

Views of an Infinite, elaborate, 

Of man, of nature— from the Hebrew's lips, 

Dubbed inspiration, by Semitic pens, 

To Egypt, debtors, both, in rites and laws: 

Strains, sweet, as David's, ere the Hebrew was, 

Cheered his migrating Ancestor and thence 

The harps of Judah wake, in songs of praise, 

Th' Accadian, in the Hebrew, God's elect. 

So, th' Hebrew was a pagan, and of Iotas 

Pagan from their remotest ancestry : 

—His worship of Jehovah, as of God, 

The Patron of the Hebrew— his, in war. 

His, in fugacious peace ; save, when the Gods 

Of captive tribes seduced him : plural Gods 

Quite, as consistent, with his chronicles. 

As with the Egyptian's, or, the Hellenist's. 

—Canaan, his, 
Thence, for three centuries, no trace appears, 
Historical, of Hebrew piety. 
Save, his vainglory, the Jew's little else 
Than, Egypt's lore, with, later, Babylon's. 
E'en, the wine and meal of the Hebrew sacrifice 
Were common, to the priesthood, of the East, 
Who, on the first and seventh, of every month 
Offered an ox in sacrifice, wherein 
Was found no blemish and between his horns 
Poured a libation of the tasted wine. 
Ere, the slain victim, to the Gods, was burnt 
In sacrifice, its chief significance 
Seems expiation, for ofi'enses, done, 
Or, meditated ; for success, in war ; 
For fertile flocks and herds, in frequent twins 
A plea, by blood, made, to a partial God. 
—The Hebrew's Altar was an abattoir. 
Sewered and drained for wholesale butchery, 
Eeeking with th' blood of bullocks and of 

rams. 
Chiefly, his holiest, at Jerusalem, 
The captured capital of Israel. 
O'er Persian, o'er Egyptian, scrupulous, 
In worship, as, an art ; in sacrifice, 
Conspicuous, for the merit of the beast, 
SlaiQ, by the priesthood— to such articles 
Of pagan piety, the Hebrew pen. 
Makes bold subscription ; while, the fabulous 
Hushes the air, with its divinity. 
Yet, as a butcher, a Semitic priest 
Were scarcely fit, on life and liberty. 
To sit with conscience tender : shedding blood 
A bullock's, or. a ram's, in th' frequent rite 



32 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Of sacrifice had left of the priestly heart 
Some such a stone, as Israel's wont to cast 
At felons, capital. 

For traflfic in man's flesh, authority; 

Or, for polygamous households, precedent; 

For the cement of thraldom that retains 

Its grip, unslackened thro' four thousand years, 

Craft, ever, turns to the Hebrew Oracles. 

—Sinai delivers, in the decalogue, 

Common experience, to a miracle, 

Semitic fancy, burst, into a flame. 

In the first precept of the ten, the phrase, 

No other Gods, before me, shalt thou have. 

Betrays the pen, of the polytheist, 

In the conspicuous phrase of other Gods, 

Tho' lor the Hebrew, trust, in Israel's own. 

A God, Supreme, had emphasised the fact. 

No God existed but Himself, or could; 

Whose lipis had blistered, speaking— other Gods. 

Still, twice, in Genesis, are the plural Gods 

Alarmed at man : first, thro' the luscious fruit, 

Conscious of good and evil with themselves ; 

Who, had he, thence, ate of the tree of life, 

Had been as one of them, an equal God. 

—How, there could rise a circumstance of 

shame. 
From sexual discovery, forbids 
The argument, it raises— yet, reflects 
A secret, silence, blushing, would conceal : 
Knowledge of good and evil, minimised 
Into an incident of sexual love; 
With the discovery of nakedness, 
Knowledge, of good and evil, consummate. 
God had been willing man had grown most 

wise. 
Nor, could man, e'er supplant Him— such a 

thought 
Had, only, sprung from a barbarian's brain, 
As, in the mythic Babel, risible. 
—If, the next precept spurns idolatry, 
A jealous God appears the gravamen; 
The title jealous, elsewhere, hailed God's own. 
—With the earlipr nations, 'twas ineffable 
The secret name, of its own God, to each; 
Thus, had the Hebrew for his God, a name 
Unspoken, as, the Eoman had for his, 
A s+ress, unspeakable, laid on a word : 
In Elohim, the plural, for all Gods, 
Hebraic usage, till a National God, 



a?fiE REVOLT OF Reason. 33 

Was, in Jehovah, proclaimed Israel's. 

So, precept, third, appears a feathered dart 

For him, who takes tiie name of God in vain 5 

The pith and essence of his turpitude, 

By man, toward God, to jvocalize His name 

Without occasion. 

—In precept, fourth, Semitic tenderness 

Votes God, o'erweary, rest— a universe, 

Done, to his fiat; wMe, unwearied time 

Down all Ids annals finds a dies non. 

In every seven— God's. 

—Had God sought rest upon the seventh day 

He, thence, had made it holy— had not paused 

Till Age on Age elapsed and then announced. 

From Sinai's top, the seventh day, holy, thence : 

Its first, exploded by geology, 

Its further, sanction is a festal day. 

Perpetuating Israel's exodus. 

—In the fifth, appears 
Th' ancestral homage of the pastoral age : 
In the parental *and the filial ties. 
Jointly, the sinews, of the common weal ; 
For, with antiquity, more sacredness. 
In filial piety, than, for the Gods. 

In each precept, thence, 
A maxim, of experience, common, man's. 
In the ten tables, not a hint appears 
Of the fall of man in Adam : then unknown. 
The fact, that, he had fallen— Heaven and Hell 
As, yet, a myth of Zoroastrian faith. 

—Not, thro' a rift 
In Syrian skies, alone, a glimpse of truth- 
Nomadic genius uttering thence its God, 
So, wisely, to the Ages, yet, a God, 
Chary, to treat, but, with an Israelite. 
By th' West, enacted till the boards are thin 
A drama, by some playwright of the East, 
His name, forgotten— should it, well, appear 
But, an invention, of man's infancy, 
Reason may not revise it, must erase 
Her tablets and re-testament mankind. 
To apprehension raised. 
—If uttered, even, by the lips of God, 
It were a statute, for the Jew, alone 
To hold the seventh day, sacred, to his flight 
From Egypt's bondage : a Creative week, 
Gone, with the Sabbath's sanction, utterly. 
—Sunday lis not a Sabbath— late a day— 
Whereon, the merriment, of Eome, ran high; 
Day, eacred to the Sun, ere Constantine ; 



34 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

A day, as, Cliristian, unliistorical : 

It, without sanction, from the lips of Christ, 

Or, scarce, of his apostles ; in the first, 

No substitution of the seventh day, 

Clothed with its sanctions : for significance, 

Christ-ward, it turns, to celebrate the day. 

Of his alleged recovery, to life ; 

God- ward, it looks not, or squints meaningless. 

Shrewd policy, it seems, in th' Holy See, 

On this, already, festal day, of Eome, 

To have thrown open her basilicas ; 

Her stately pomp, against the hippodrome, 

Presented the coarse Roman, who declines. 

Or, for the Circus, would, her mummeries. 

Of thinned basilicas, came the decree 

That bade the urban artizan, to rest. 

On that day, sacred, to the Sun, which yet, 

Permitted men, to plow, or,, sow, or, reap, 

Without the City : thus, replenishment, 

Of the papal purse, ensued ; on which decr^ 

With men's enactments, since, a Sunday stands. 

The issue, simple, is expediency, 

Not, obligation— if one day in seven. 

Shall, still, be set apart, to indolence. 

Custom and not utility has made 

A day of leisure, one, in every seven. 

—Imagination, still, hath by the throat, 

Man she so terrified, in infancy; 

While, fifteen centuries the West has thought 

To Hebrew premises and, gently, sighed. 

How, wise, the Hebrews were. 

The code of Moses appears, scrupulous, 
Toucliing a bird's nest— which, if robbed aright, 
Shall prove no robbery : for, who snatch the 

young 
Yet, spare the pair, to hatch another brood, 
Have victualed Israel and have done no crime. 
Grasshoppers, locusts and the like, if, food, 
In theocratic times, by warrant, God's, 
The semi-savage, of the desert, still, 
May taste the dainties of the elect of Heaven. 
—To the Egyptian, swine's flesh was unclean ; 
Whose law of clean and unclean beast and bird, 
The Hebrew made the basis of his own, 
In statutes, argued, from the lips of God. 
The rights of Egypt, ceremonious. 
The Jew's were, also ; so, the linen, worn 
Of the priesthood, sacred, in the mode thereof. 
Were God charm^ with a vestment as a maid 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 35 

Leaps, at the loom's rare product and adorns 
Her envious bosom, with its envied folds ? 
But, hov/ divine that ex post facto law, 
Wherebj^ the wretch, who, on the Sabbath day 
Had gathered sticks, was doomed to instant 

death, 
Without the Camp, by stones— who had not 

sinned. 
For, to no statute, crime doth not exist 
Not, clearly, stampt, with moral turpitude. 
—If, a man strike his servant, or his maid 
A fatal blow, he shall go, quit, of guilt, 
If, he, or she survive, a day, or, two ; 
He, smitten, is his money— so, is she. 
Lex talionis, is the ^Hebrew code. 
All reformation, of the criminal. 
Postponed four thousand years. 
—In the enactment, arming with a spade 
One, of each soldier's feet, tho' cleanliness 
Meets with laudation, argument is sprung, 
As, to how human. Deity had been. 
Had soiled his feet in the absence of th' spade. 
Passing the Hebrew forces, in review. 
—The Hebrew, semi-barbarous, had God, 
Stoopt, semi-barbarous, to the Israelite ? 
A longed-for fountain, reached— found, parched, 

itself, 
Intensifies the thirst, late, bearable. 
Till it hath crazed the brain. 
—Innocence sweetens childhood and betrays 
Th' infantile wisdom in it ; yet, becomes 
A felon, thus — thou shalt not countenance 
A poor man, in his cause : which, from God's 

lips 
Had God despatched, as, if, by dynamite, , 
No shred of Godship, left— thence the coarse jest. 
Of a swept sphere ; historically, known. 
As, sheer Semitic craft : or, charity, 
Therein, had argued a barbarian's God, 
Intensifying God's, traits, wholly, man's. 
An infinite Hebrew was the Hebrew's God : 
So, Gods, men venerate, to-day, reflect 
But, culture, argued, God-like. 
—To the inspired Semitic utterance— 
Thou shalt not suffer any witch to live, 
Down either hemisphere, what guiltless blood. 
Has trickled, woman's? thus, has sorcory, 
Man's evil fancy, made appeal, to God, 
To vouch, fcr its existence— notably, 
lu the Egyptian myth, where, magic plays 



§6 A MAMlNIAL ONLI^. 

An even hand against the Infinite, 

Until, it baulks, at lice, as magic should. 

To Innocent's bull, four centuries ago, 

A hundred thousand, burnt, in Germany, 

Wf^re, but, a fraction of the witches, slain, 

In populous Europe ; while, America 

Hath Salem's ineradicable blot. 

—The rite, of circumcision, had its rise 

Ere, Abraham's birth, conspicuous, centuries 

In Egypt's annals ; with the Kafir, yet, 

With semi-savages, in every sea, 

Eite, sometimes, woman's ; yet, the Hebrew so 

His tent-pole, thus, in th' hollow of God's hand, 

And elbowed, thence, mankind. 

With the pagan nations, Hebrew altars stood, 
On the high places, whence, each sacrifice 
Of blood, was oilered : so, when, Abraham 
Would offer Isaac, he forestalled his faith, 
By an entangled ram, for sacrifice; 
It, if, no fiction, not, more notable, 
Than, th' zeal of Agamemnon, who would slay 
His child for the weal of Greece— its parallel. 
—Abraham settles the atrocious plan 
Of thrusting Hagar, in the wilderness. 
By an appeal to God, who, kindly, sides 
With Sara's jealousy : hence, Abraham 
Eides, spotless, down the Ages. Can it be 
That th' faith of all the ages has remarked 
In this Chaldean's craft, the will of God, 
When, this Chaldean sinned, or would do sin ? 
Great things and small strike men, so forcibly, 
What fool had made a lantern of the Sun ? 
Would make a foot-ball, of the Morning Star ? 
Let Abraham sleep in the Machpelah cave, 
He bought and paid for, where, he, fitly, sleeps, 
A Nomad, typed, in every Slieik, to-day, 
W^hom, wherein, worthier, by the worthier 

deeds 
Eeputed of him ; wherein, baser, then 
By baselier conduct : if, a slight defense 
He was a nomad, to the crimes of one; 
What, of his title, as the Friend of God ? 
Abraham's memoirs were, perhaps, unwrit 
Tho' dead a thousand years— if true of him 
He lived and died a veritable man. 
The Supernatural that guides his steps, 
His virtues, with his faults, that crowd his life. 
Fall in, with exigencies, that befel 
The Hebrew nomads— or, are history, 



THE REVOLT OP REASON. 31* 

If, when, they had no other, but the pens 
Of the fertile annalist of after times, 
Whose fancy rioted, as Livy's, since, 
As, his, the Mantuan bard's, in Eoman chaff, 
In the folk-lore of a vainglorious race, 
To set the seal of Heaven, on Israel, 
Thro' a migrating son of Chaldea. 
Isaac displays a lack of manliness, 
Wherein, he leaves his blessing, with the Son, 
His subtle Avife elects and doth clear wrong- 
To his first-born, whom, custom had decreed 
Should wear his honors, fitly : tolerance, 
Of whose duplicity, toward royalty. 
With that, of Abraham, as, each bears off 
The fruit of perfidy, in flocks and herds. 
In shameful? sheckels, from the manlier kings, 
Than, they, who, craftily, for gain, itself. 
Enticed, v^ith shapely wives— 'twere diflicult. 
To, even, grant a Hebrew patriarch; 
Its parallel in the Hebrew exodus, 
When, larceny makes use of God's command 
To lade itself, with the Eg5-ptian's gold 
Jewels and trinkets, to a borrower's plea. 
Yet, Abraham had a Pharaoh, once, erewhUe 
Entangled, with liis wife, to ampler gams 
In flocks, in herds, in gold : his larceny 
A pronounced felon's, when, from Gerar's king 
Isaac made lame defense, charged with his 

crime ; 
But, Abram sprang a quibble, when, accust^d 
Of th' Pharaoh with deceit, in that, his wife 
Was, truly, his half-sister— tho' a plea. 
Intensifying his duplicity ; 
His crime, the more atrocious, before God; 
His marriage void of Nature, God and man ; 
To Egypt, or Chaldea, possible. 
—In Jacob— Isaac is and Abraham 
So far, outdone, in shamelessness and craft, 
The name of Jacob is, for turpitude, 
Of each, unshadowed : born, to him, twelve 

sons. 
Fruit of two wives and of tWo concubines ; 
His, too, a daughter— thro' duplicity. 
Who snatched his brother's birthright and had 

fled, 
Hia murderous hand for nigh a score of years : 
Hailed, of God— Israel ; in his sons, indeed. 
Father, of all the Hebrews— yet, his hand 
Not, stained with th' blood of all the Shech- 

emites. 



§8 A MAMMAL ONLf. 

For Dinah's sake— he should have washed it, 

white, 
Thro' disavowal of th' atrocity, 
By restitution of the captives' spoils, 
With th' herds, th' outlaws had borne off with 

them. 
Known, as, the sons of Jacob,— Man had, then. 
No blush, whose shame had turned the Jordan 

red, 
For crime, to-day, had made th' Atlantic blush. 
Yet, remark Esau's magnaminity, 
When, met with Jacob, who supplanted him, 
A manhood, rare, in current gentlemen. 
But, what amazes reason is that ease, 
With which, the narrative doth handle God, 
As, the promoter of uaseemly acts. 
As, the apologist for crime, when done ; 
Ecstatic piety, evolving, whence 
The scroll turns black, as night, with turpitude. 
—Lot's piety had moved the heart of God, 
To rescue godly Lot, from Sodom's doom ; 
Piety, that had cast two virgins, forth, 
Of his own flesh, f appease a lecherous mob. 
While, entertaining angels, in his house. 
If, t' insure their safety, thro' the shame 
Of his two daughters : and if, logical. 
What should such piety suggest to Lot, 
Escaped the plain and amorous in the cave, 
But, by his daughters, to raise sons to him, 
And charge his lust on innocent sleep, profound 
A monk had smiled at in Boccaccio's day ; 
On inebriety, or, on the lust 
Of his two daughters— Lot, without a stain. 
What man, but, finds a monster, in himself, 
When, he would thwart desire? 
—If Sodom and Gomorrah, ever, were; 
Or, if unfabulous, they fell, to fire. 
The witness is, still, present to their fall. 
Where, Nature so abounds, in bitumen. 
In geologic and historic time, 
Strange freaks have seized her and may seize 

her yet : 
Or, sank the plain, a sea, the sea is there. 
— Lo ! where Noah fell, he lieth, snoring yet. 
As, th' fabulous hero of Semitic fame, 
With breath, so foul, that an impinging spark 
Had fired the yet escaping alcohol. 
Men's scorn for Noah is that he cursed the son ; 
Tempted, to that, which should have sobered 

Noah, 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 39 

1-testoring his lost manliness instead 

Of stirring passions, fierce and truculent. 

Perdition, man's own art, he hath the will 

To culture, or, 'restrain it ; who, in wine, 

Hath murder at his beck and needs no more 

Than, wine distilled, to terrorize the globe. 

With ready-made assassins. 

—Nature might boil with springs of alcohol. 

But Nature doth not : it is man who made 

That poison,, of the self -same elements, 

Mixt, to her gauge, so wholesome, mixt, to his 

Mountuig the brain for murder. Alcohol, 

Thence, not perdition, whence ? The Fegian, 

The Bushman and the drone, by Labrador, 

Seek, each, some poison, to antagonize 

Th' possible manhood, in him : drunkenness, 

If, from the betel nut, or, from the vine, 

Accepts the common odium— beastliness ; 

For which, no plea, but that of courteous 

death, 
Whose pity slips a dart ; reform, begun. 
With babes, to drunkards, born. 

A Medusa's head. 
Hissing with serpents, to the bibulous, 
Whether, an Alexander, or, a monk, 
A South Sea Islander, or Hottentot, 
That, in all lexicons, for— alcohol. 

The tale of Joseph is a charming dream. 

Half, orient fancy : such, the wail of Job, 

Tho', faith, for her vocabulary, seeks 

Her gems and choicest, in this dialogue. 

Of unknown source— a fiction, redolent 

Of Chaldean, Hebrew, Persian scholarship. 

Itself, the jewel, of the elder books. 

—Isaiah sings the hopes of Israel, 

Just, as Aryan bards, as Greec-e and Eome 

Sang racial figments, to satiety. 

Isaiah, mightiest, of Semitic bards. 

Dead, o'er a century, resumes his song, 

With lyre, re-strung, to th' Muse of History. 

While, who penned Daniel, chronicled events, 

In th' role of prophesy, that had transpired. 

All, mystical, therein, as meaningless. 

As, when, indited : Daniel's single charm, 

In the post-mortem color of the ink. 

In Samuel's conduct, toward the manlier Saul, 
Wliereby, the son of Jesse is made king. 
Supplanting Saul, by sheer duplicity, 



40 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Saul, having done the sliameful butchery, 
A pledge his crown and kingdom should endure, 
The glib narrator hails the prompter, God. 
With the Amalekites, prone, in .their gore, 
Their king, selectest sheep and oxen, Saul's, 
God hath repented. He had made Saul, kmg, 
Would, David, in his stead, had sat, liis 

throne. 
So, Samuel cleaves down Agag, Saul had spared. 
E'en, to the plea, that Saul's barbarity, 
Had not been found, conspicuous, enough ; 
Thro* stratagem, anointing David, king. 
A quibble, in a man, were what, in God ? 

What had not David's royal stomach borne, 
Who could do murder, to embrace Ins wile, 
Fallen to royal lust ? Is it not true 
That, murder, in a villain, in a king, 
Were, tenfold, murder — in whose penitence, 
A royal swing, out of a felon's slough ? 
So, what plebeian had desired the wife. 
Who, in his absence, with another w^ed. 
Adulterous, for years ? Yet, David had ; 
The unwilling, impious wretch, restored to Mm, 
TliTo' treaty made with Abner. Heu, alas ! 
For blood, if, royal, that, in David's veins. 
So, the demise of Nabal, opportune. 
Falling, ten days, from the acquaintanceship 
Of Abigail with David, may suggest 
Poison, instead, of intervention, God's, 
In haste, to wed to David, Abigail. 
He, with his harp, who charmed despondent 

Saul, 
May make the eyes o'erflow and e'en the voice 
Grow tremulous, to his sweet psalmody ; 
Yet, herein, is repentance and what, else ? 
A manhood to be shunned, constrained to leave 
Such strains of penitence, behind, to wave 
Man's indignation oil", as well as God's ; 
Therein, suggestion crime were readily 
Condoned, of God, if, to a favorite. 
—To raise the standard of true manhood, strike 
Th' offender squarely ; innocence is smirched 
In felons that go free. 

If, after God's own heart, this man was styled, 
He may have died, while, in pursuit of it. 
The plea, for David and his sacred peers. 
Their virtues and their vices are alike, 
Preserved, to prove, how frail and fallible, 
Man, at Ms best, is— sets, in blinding light, 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 41 

But, for the hideous background of their crimes, 
Their straggling virtues were unrecognized. 

— Pieti' may be 
Melodious, from the harp, to burniug words, 
Of anguish, or, remorse ; if, this be so. 
What felon, waiting doom, but, hath enough, 
To shake Heaven's arches ? 

—Of Solomon, 
Whose proverbs are the sayings of the East, 
Whose mind debauched, may have propounded 

one. 
Or, may have, manj-— his libidinous life. 
Silence finds speech to danm, or, had been 

damned. 
Yet, is that true, or, half, thereof, half true, 
Eecorded, of him? 

—Of ease, of leisure, opulence, or power, 
It often happens the incumbent feels 
Himself, a special favorite of Heaven; 
Hence the ellusive strains of piety 
From such, down all the ages— vanity 
Prompts tiie delusion, in a Nero's heart, 
Or, in a David's. 

—Pious ejaculation, from the midst 
Of wickedness, astounding, simply, proves 
How blasphemous Ms piety may be, 
]\Ian, semi-barbarous, even, when sincere : 
It, often, of the priesthood, but, a ruse 
To awe the vulgar, to revere their words, 
As, if, God's oracles and wear, serene, 
Their master's shackles. 
—E'en, as the cultured Hellenist invoked 
The aid, of Zeus, th' uncultured nomad strode. 
Led, of God's spirit, forth, to butchery, 
As, Samson, with the jawbone of an ass. 
Dispatched a thousand, tho' th' incredulous 
Urge he had splintered it, ere, slaying ten. 
So puerile, the fiction, that assumes 
That, e'en, a thousand cowards, like a flock 
Of sheep had, singly, fallen— whose joint charge 
Had slain and hung him, by his lying locks. 
That, by their length had in like ratio, proved 
His strength enfeebled. But, how exquisite 
When, to the spirit of the Lord, again, 
At Askalon, he slayeth thirty men. 
To strip for spoil, wherewith, to recompense 
His thirty choice companions who had solved 
The saintly Samson's riddle ? Samson's death 
Transcends mythology in Greece or Eome : 
To the miraculous, appeal is made 



42 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

To obviate its incongruities. 
While, tlie myth defaults to that of Hercules ; 
More humor in the foxes' blazing tails, 
Than stench from the Augean stalls. 

Tho', half is fable, half, the other half. 

Is mythic, also, of th' atrocities, 

The earlier ages have recorded— God's, 

Done, by man's hand— hailed of disshackled 

thought. 
Pious bravado, only. God is, still, 
The God, he was ; of whom no pen dare write, 
He thinketh evil, or inspireth man, 
Or, nerves him, to do murder. 
—The ingenuity of scholarship 
Has wrought upon its scrolls age after age 
To stretch the purport of a cultus, meant 
T' embrace a tribe, or, race, to man, include. 
And hath, or, would, in only Israel's God, 
Seek human Nature's- 

—In the dis-poisoned soup and swimming axe 
We have Elisha ; yet, what have we here ? 
'Twere almost quite as easy to reply, 
As, to propound the query ; since, 'twas when 
Magic and sorcery and witchcraft swayed 
The semi-l>arbarous East, this prophet rose, 
When, rose so many seers in Israel. 
While, mythical, of children, two score two, 
Were, of she-bears devoured, for mocking him ; 
Yet, the barbarity of such an age 
Would prove his seer ship, by the fact, itself, 
That had disproved it, both to Gods and men. 
Still, when had fable bit her lying tongue 
While, men had listened? 
—The incident may smack of Eastern craft 
Instilling terror in the infant mind, 
ThaJ had indulged irreverence for age ; 
Fear as the master passion of the heart 
With reverence for age, obsequious, 
The premises of patriarchal sway. 
Blot from all primers, such atrocities : 
Fables like tMs to have imparted babes 
Were crime, continuous, for three thousand 

years. 
Fear, not, as of a monster, fear of God. 
As, of a father, who had kissed his child. 
And, ere discretion, gently, had reproved, 
Illume, therewith, the mind of infancy. 
A fool had charged a wisp- man with an act, 
Only, ft fool could have been guilty of ; 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 43 

Its refutation, carried in the charge : 

bo, savagery had charged an act on God, 

Only, a savage, had conceived, or, done. 

Lions and bears greet the Hebraic pen, 

In th' glare of day, in th' teeming haunts of 

life. 
Swarming, like lions, in Bengal, by night. 
Cautiously stealing past her bungalows. 

Ah ! who, to-day, had deemed Elijah ripe, 
For haste to Heaven, by steeds of flaming fire. 
The blood, contest of quite four hundred men 
Soaking his mantle? Yet, 'tis possible, 
Elijah's mantle was as white as snow. 
As, th' innocent wool, whereof, it had been 

wrought. 
The holocaust of the four hundred priests 
Like other marvels, but the vaporing ink 
Of pens, Semitic: since the annalist 
Permits him, to flee danger and to skulk 
Where'er he may from vengeance when de- 
nounced. 
On the atrocious massacre— the fault 
Not, with Elias, with the fabulist. 
Who paints the veriest coward, in the seer, 
He, yet, had armed, with strength, Jehovah's 

own. 
—As Constantine descried a flaming Cross. 
His armies saw not, and inspired their ranks 
With his narration of the prodigy. 
So, may Elisha have proclaimed his right 
To the succession, by a narrative, 
Tho' false, a master-stroke of policy. 
If, to assume collusion, possible 
Between Elisha and the Tishbite, then, 
Elisha's marked reluctance to permit 
The fifty's quest, for good Elijah, lost, 
Might, well, have sprung from shrewd Elisha's 

fear 
Lest, yet, Elijah had not quite, concealed 
His person, safely ; or were scarce en route 
For th' whither, he would reach-^thenceforth 

to live 
Unrecognized, as, late, a seer of Heaven. 
Elijah doubted, if Elisha should 
Perceive his exit ; yet, Elisha did. 
Or, it is written, that he did and seized 
His mantle, fallen : irresistible 
Thus, the impression, that no other eye 
Saw the translation : from the fifty, stood, 



44 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Afar, at. Jericho, no hint appears, 
These saw the chariot. 
—The grossness of the era is contest 
In the suggestion, fifty should proceed 
To search for lost Elijah, lest his God 
Had cast him on a mountain peak, forlorn, 
Or, in some valley ; so incongruous 
Men's notions of a God, when miracles 
The most stupendous, in mythology. 
Fable affected : what it proves is clear. 
How raw, the genius of the annalist. 

Enoch, the seventh from Adam, walked v/ith 

God: 
And Enoch was not, for God took him— here. 
Death, in its choicest figure, appears couched : 
Enoch's translation, but, an inference. 
Drawn, from Elijah's, of late scholarship. 
If, God took Enoch, living, Enoch w^as; 
Who was not, of God, taken, if by death. 
In an untutored Age, that rare memoir 
May have received a sense, so literal, 
As, that, some day when Enoch walked with 

God, 
God whiskt his choice companion (j>ff, with 

Him. 
—Have wise archbishops argued, how the sun 
"With the earth, conspired, that, the sun's 

shadow might 
Eetreat on Ahaz, dial, ten degrees? 
Gravely, these argued- -nay, have, even, urged 
The earth did change her motion, to effect 
For Hezekiah, the demanded sign. 
Alas! for human reason, when, in chains, 
Thro' fear, of human reason, set, at large. 
Belike, Isaiah might have aired the cue 
That, had undone, when, done, the miracle. 
^o, if, man ever stayed the sun or moon, 
His, the like art, or, privilege, to-day. 
Yet, men insist, that, tho' they sometimes li'^. 
Their ancestors could not— a courtesy 
That has cost half the mischief, in tho world. 
A conscientious liar is the worst, 
Of liars, easily. 

Eomulus, son of Mars, had founded Eome, 

Had reigned nigh forty years, then, rode to 

Heaven, 
In a fiery chariot, seated ; the sun, dark, 
Tlie earth, tempestuous; and was afterwards 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 45 

Seen, of Proculus Julius, beautiful, 

As, in a vision— whom hailed Quirinus, 

Eome, as her guardian God, thenceforth 

adored. 
Thus, fable seems imprest on the stones of 

Eome, 
As, on the tents and arms of Israel. 
The prophets of the Hebrew were, but, bards. 
Hailed, always, prophets— so, all prophesy- 
Is fancy, in the role of poesy. 
Just, as the sports of childhood are of kin. 
Theories, sprung, of ignorance, agree. 
It strikes the savage, common, to confess 
God, in the thunder; or, by sacrifice. 
Bloody and cruel to avert his wrath. 
So, to incipient culture, God reveals. 
In dreams and visions, what shall come to pass ; 
Or, by the vision of a nation's bards. 
When, reason, bursting sacerdotal chains, 
Achieved the proof, no priesthood hath, in fee, 
By divine warrant— man, the spark was struck, 
That made man, luminous. Yet, who had 

dreamt 
Words, by barbarian?*, for barbarians, writ. 
Should, by their sheer antiquity, alone 
Have duped the cultured eras of mankind? 
Semi-barbarians had the audacity 
To credit God, with having penned their codes. 
Who is, to them, a partner in each scheme 
If, kindly, or nefarious ; and the Jew 
Not, the exception, was the rule, itself. 
In all its rigor— in the vulgar craft, 
Of a Nomadic priesthood, to insure 
Tithes and th' innocent victims, cruelly 
Bntf'hered, in sacrifice; then, at the age 
Of fifty years, disfunctioned, left, to enjoy 
The exacted riches. 

The muffled sound, of a mechanic's tools. 
Is heard, in Nature, but, a fiat— where ? 
Nature had queried, what a fiat meant. 
In th' Cosmos of the Hebrew stands the earth 
With the sun and moon, as adjuncts : to create 
Where Science was in embryo, an act 
Of God's volition: the Creative week, 
A tale of attless, innocent, old age, 
j^rching it« eyebrows, to the wistful tent. 
With the moon's quarters made to synchronise, 
To the seven planets a fit compliment. 
The week, a fact, before Creation's date. 



46 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

E'en, to clironology, the Church's own. 
In the seventh, haned a day of festive ease : 
'ihus, tiie week suggested the creation myth, 
And not the myth, the week. 
—From the seven planets of antiquity, 
Wlience, e'en, Apollo's lyre took seven strings, 
Sprang, half, the crumbling myths and vagaries, 
That, like old hulks, in the higlnvays ot the 

sea, 
Imperii navies, and men, nautical, 
Freeze, with forebodings : thence, the mystic 

seven : - 
Forty and seven, from the Semitic pen 
As cabalistic, as is presto-change. 
With strolling jugglers. 

—While the ethics of the Bible are the Jevv^'s, 
The precepts, Ulirist accented, are, of kin 
To Hmdoo saintship, tho' his argument 
Is that, of the enthusiast, who dreams 
His mission is divine; then, stakes his life, 
Upon the issue raised and loses it, 
I'or what, the Jew held blasphemy and Eome 
If, she held treason, did so with a smile. 
Yet, for the Jew's sake, slew him with a spear ; 
Man's brother not his sire— wherein, a king 
The Agnus Dei of all potentates. 
Some precious kernels, rescued from life' a 

chalf, 
Men hailing ethics, cherish, as divine, 
Experience, always ; how, man cast his skins, 
Tore out his fangs, endued his cruel claws 
With humanising arts— to poesy, 
V/ere man's majestic era : life, to-day, 
Is gentle, as the jasmine and foretells. 
Like, that sweet plant, in the yet closed bud 
Its ministry, in flower. 
—As, 'tis not knowledge, man's, entlirones a 

God, 
Nor lack, that had dismist one— man's conceit 
Are his peculiar products, never, God's. 
Nothing, but God is holy— after him, 
All things bear marks of their incestuous birth 
Man, e'en, if, raised into the millionth power, 
Had showed no signs of Godship— man, the 

more : 
God, but, an open question, to be met, 
With light, more light, v/ith, ever, more light, 

still. 
Not, to attain power, but, equipt therewith, 
Betokens God and always : God falls not 



THE REVOLT OP REASON. 47 

la the dilemma, luau'a— faiu, to elect 
Between expedients. 

—If, in tlie daybreak, God liad chanced to meet 
A semi-savage and accosted luin, 
The interview, if, afterwards, detailed, 
Had left no faint impression, on the mind, 
That, He, somehow, had shortened sail, a God. 
Words, too, inspired, if, in a barbarous ac'o, 
Had not evinced the savagery, therein, 
Of such an era, but, had honored God 
E'en, to an age of culture ; had not craved. 
For' God, extenuation— bidding man. 
To place himself, in the barbarian's stead, 
And by his standard, gauge the immaculate God. 
From the barbarian's stand-point, to seek Go.L 
Were to contend, tliro' barbarism, life 
Had become consummate. 
— Wliy, between Gcd and man, analogy, 
Pursued, as, if the fact were palpable ? 
Men are yet in the leading strings of P^ul, 
David and Jeremiah — half, their tears. 
Yet, salted, from the pillar of Lot's wife. 
-The gentile is the Hebrew's metaphor, 
A foil, to Israel's glory : scarcely, once. 
Is th' gentile name sung by Hebraic bards. 
But, as, a captive, Israel's kingdom, ccmc ; 
The Jew sang for himself, sang not for man. 
Modern polemics would thrust man, within. 
That, written by and for th' elect of Heaven. 
Yet, God and he a partial God, ^^'ero seen 
Nearing the exit of the universe- 
Going, unreverenced. 

—Nor, are the Hebrew Scriptures vhat they were. 
Their barbarous cipher, helped by all the pens 
Of luminous reason to eke out the text, 
Or shade its unconcealed savagery. 
The book, if, God's, yet, w4th a frontispiece, 
A serpent and man's mother, seems to proof, 
But, a thesaurus of the orient mind, 
Of Hebrew letters, the compendium : 
A Hebrew-Chaldean anthology, 
A synthesis, of oriental faith. 
In its religion, clearly composite. 
Its annals, to convenience, fabulous. 
Whate'er, the void, in Hebrew scholarship, 
God is imprest to fill it ; for each fact. 
Asseveration takes the place of proof. 
That, elsewhere, true, were in the Bible, true. 
That, false, if, elsewhere, false, why not, 
therein ? 



48 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

The complement of magic, sorcery, 

Of astrologic wisdom, when, compiled: 

Of origin, divine, to proofs, its own, 

Man ventures near and finds the book, a book. 

Not, holy writ, 'twere diabolic writ, 

The tale of butchered Canaan : half, if true 

Crime in the name of th' immaculate God, 

Turpitude, baseness, quite impossible, 

To the West, as fiction, entertained as fact 

In th' Hebrew annals, it accentuates 

The barbarism, of an era, known 

As theocratic. 

—Despite the glosses of all scholarship. 

The pen was held by a polytheist, 

That left on record, paradise and Sin : 

His scrolls a patchwork of the Hebrews' pride, 

They realize a tribe's desires, unrest, 

AmLition, lust, vainglory, overthrow. 

The author of the Pentateuch, unknown 

It fareth worse, than, with its author known : 

Its author known, yet, certifying that. 

False to man's reason— what shall reason do ? 

Must man accept of Israel's God, or, none ? 

How, had this struck a visitant from Mars, 

The evidence, before him ? 

—Dubbed as The Books, in the fourth century, 

Hy an ascetic, known, as th' Golden Mouth, 

The bible is, in issue, as to the worth 

Of the genius, man's, that permeates the text. 

With reason, umpire— man's enfranchised mind 

Has raised the question, if, the book be, God's. 

If, God's own word, it may ignore the gag ; 

If, God's own word, it stands, alone, like Him, 

Of incommunicable energy. 

— Tlie bible hands a brief, for any course 

Of moral conduct to each litigant. 

While, it forecloses freedom, innocent, 

ConceiA^ed, before opinion, that man had 

The right of private judgment. 

—Man's reverent genius leaves her own light 

there 
Fcr light she seeks, yet finds not in the text ; 
Hor light, man's progress, in despair of scrolls 
That depreciating change, man, pastoral 
Hail, finished, as, in Syria. 
—The Jew is ever challenging the Gods 
Of other pagans, to some feat of strength, 
While, his own pen records, who wins the joust 
r-.o, he indited his own chronicles 



THE REVOLT CF REASOX. 49 

With th' stolen nutgalls of a stolen land, 
\Vlu>, every scroll embellished as he would. 
The cultured nations of antiquity, 
But, as, a slave, or, captive, pdss him by, 
Who were unknown, with the nomadic tribes 
His peers, he conquered, but for vanity 
Unspeakable and tribal, that, to faith, 
Made an appeal and duped the gentile world, 
Unwittingly, to venerate his words ; 
Which, clambering into Israel's narrow bed, 
Has, ever, since, sought to crowd Israel out. 
Nomadic legends never become true, 
Because, the Hebrew's, for no flock of sheep 
Wayward, as Israel, broAvsed, at will, a sphere, 
Shepherded by the Infinite. 

—Bigotry, 
By, ever burnished arms, sustains ttie seal 
Of silence, on men's lips. Compute the cost, 
To date, of silence : blood, e'en ten times o'er, 
All Alexander's, Caesar's,- Bonaparte's. 
The issue, stated, were— belief in God, 
Conceived, as. man may. or, as Israel hath. 
God is, on trial, always, for a flaw; 
Impatient to be tried, by every test, 
Man's reason may devise. 

—Who saith that God and man are not at one ? 
An Eastern Fable : by authority, 
Of whom, is man, a culprit, before God, 
Forever, in his issue ?— Persiflage, 
Men will indulge in, whose such antics, here, 
Such expectations, hence— all history 
Were a broad farce, to a good playwright's pen 
E'en, the bible argues, power, wherever found. 
Whatever, styled, as God's and shuts the door 
On reformation w^ith a hopeless bang ; 
Wliile, man's theology supports the text, 
With theories of moral government 
By a supreme and personal Deity, 
Whose counsels are unknown ; evil as good, 
Laid, on Him, indirectly, thro' the craft 
Of an arch Devil, who discomfits God, 
By his devices, oft. 

Fnith, a lost art, what Fury had restored? 

'Twere not essential to true worship, God, 

Fhould be a Person— who impersonal, 

Were as adorable : man's ignorance 

As, to what God may be, leaves God unchanged 

Who challenges man's homage, as a Fact, 

Tlio' incommunicable 



50 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

—Man's most alarming Fall was, when he fell 

Into the gross mistake— that Nature errs, 

His province, to correct her : who, when dead. 

Is man, completed, to all science, yet ; 

Tho' Nature drops the curtain, with a sigh, 

On his poor playing. 

—The virtues with the vices of an Age, 

The Hebrew devotes candidly to God ; 

Nothing, of good or evil. He is not 

Amenable to man for— tho' the time 

Be not, yet, ripe, himself, to vindxate. 

A plague thins London and the earthqualio 

thrives 
On Lisbon and Callao ; in Cathay, 
A swollen river drowns a million souls ; 
Wliile, scare, a day, but somewhere and some- 
how. 
Revolting slaughter— is it therefore God's ? 

Slavery and polygamy appear, 

Early, in Genesis— such noxious haste. 

In barbarous man, t' enslave each captive tribe 

Lusting for many wives, who pleads God's 

wmk, 
To clinch both evils on a credulous world. 
—God had He e'er revealed Himself at all 
And as a Person, 'twere t' accommodate 
Man's limitations ; God, remaining, still, 
That infinite necessity, whereof. 
He, scarcely, probes tho mystery, himself, 
In self -existence. 

—Can God perform a miracle— who knows ? 
His presence, in fixt laws, his history, 
In all authentic eras? May He act 
Other, than, is apparent, or, suspend 
The laws of Nature, or, do that, without. 
His custom, to do, thro' them ?— or, at will, 
Ignore the powers of Nature ? What is God 
Craves, first, solution— for, the Infinite 
Is what?— and, always. 

—Man, fabulous, invades the will of God, 
Whose realm is silence and some vocables 
Drops, furtively, therein— tho' man's a stretch 
Of history, with not a portent in, 
But, to proof, couimon. 
-Man's wholesale vanity is the false note, 
Of his first octave, swept from catgut strung, 
To Asia's barren and unpeopled skies. 
Speak, plainly, man: thy fluty, so, to speak; 
Nor, mince thy words, as, if. in mortal fear 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 51 

Of the ghosts of dead barbarians ; speech, thine 

own, 
By right, as clear, as theirs. Ah ! me, if God 
Doth think of man, at all, when had he thought 
More, opportunely, of him, than, to-day? 
God, his, a favorite, had 'been the butt. 
Of all the universe. 

—That of the Jew is true, whate'er he wrote 
In words, self-luminous ; his miracles 
8pume, of li'ls barbaro'us childhood— as, if, God, 
Knew any friend, in man, beyond a man, 
For man's sake, only ? Wliat, the Hebrew 

penned 
True of all men, conceded of all time, 
J I, God, still, speaks, by man, God spoke, by 

him. 
Man, primitive, finds that, an easy stride, 
Across the doorsill of the Infinite, 
Man, cultured, finds so hard. 
—Goblins have held the earth and man has 

cowed 
To that, invisible, as, if, the sense 
Of sight with hearing, were not one to him, 
Wiiii til' tiger in his jungle— whence, whate'er 
Had put him on his mettle? Nature stamps 
On man, her cost mark, to rebuke the I<ny ve 
Who quotes himself, too high. 
—The Arab, still, is what the Hebrew was, 
Allah, for a Jehovah : patriarchs 
Sway, yet, the East, as when they ruled the 

tents 
Of the nomadic Hebrew— thus, it seems 
Both soil and climate are, less, factors, man's, 
Than, man a reflex of them. 
—Man hath not met with Light and then passed 

on ; 
He's in pursuit thereof— yet strikes each spark. 
He threads his way by. 
—The name of Jew shall, yet, be obsolete. 
His blood in every realm, in every State, 
Man's, with an accent,, as on patriot, laid: 
Jerusalem, but monuments a tribe. 
Like ancient Eome, with fancied grace from 

Heaven. 
The Jew is wiser, than, he ever was. 
His genius and h's morals, excellent. 
Above all men, his patience, half divine : 
He, less, a HebreAv. than, a citizen, 
Of evpry nation, safely eminent. 
The West, but, an assassin, thro' her zeal. 



52 A MAMJIAL ONLY. 

For tlie dogma ol Clirist's sonsMp, centuries, 
Is, yet, a -veiled assassin, witli a plea, 
E'en, for starvation, as a sacrament, 
If, of til' perisliing Hebrew— in that, he 
Held, Jesus had blasphemed, thro' ancestors. 
Interred in Jewry, nigh, two thousand years. 
O God, what have not, do not, men conceive 
Had been thy pleasure? 

Greece taught men how to think, Eome how to 

tight. 
No Eome, no Clu-ist : in Hi)n the plaintive wail 
Of struck Judea; in the bliss of lieaven. 
In the fires of Hell, impatient equity- - 
A short-lived sphere, in flames, to Israel. 
With th' Earth, the centre of the univ^erse, 
And the Hebrew, God's elect, th' economy 
Of Nature, bowed to Jewish liistory, 
Enacted, on the soil of Canaan— less 
Than a feudal dukedom, in its acreage. 
So, in Cln-ist's day, th' belief had currency, 
A final consummation was at hand ; 
His cry, the undertone, of Jewish faith. 
To Time, his Empire, scarcely, j^et, begun, 
It called a halt and bade a pregnant sphere 
To brief advisement, cease. 
— 'Twas startling news, to break in Gentile 

ears. 
The winding up of Time's economy ; 
Tho' the HebroAv's ears were prickt to hear 

thereof, 
Since, the sun shone for Imn and the earth 

(Stood firm ; 
Wliile Time, concluded, had brought punish- 
ment 
To Judah's foes in Judah's triumph, come. 

Yet, to conceive 
A world begun and ended, what a st-oop 
To human limitations ? Time itself 
Tho', but, another : what, the universe 
Means, as, a whole, were indefinable. 
By man, or to him— who has come to know. 
Truth, such as he partakes of, must be truth, 
A conquest, by his intellect, alone, 
Or, its supreme conception. Man has grown 
So clear of vision, he looks straight at God, 
And cuts the cant, below him. So, his brain 
Hath shaped this world and to. its energies 
Imparted purpose : with the earth, his OA\n 
JNTfin's moral forces, joined, "vvitli Nature's powers 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 53 

In cordial concert, suggoot Providence. 
So, oft in history, the act of God 
Is man's neglect, or ignorance, or both, 
Confronting natural law, that haJ. not swerved 
A jot, to rescue a dis-sphering star ; 
While, all disasters, from dis curbed law, 
Are, but, exceptions, Nature may regret 
Much, as, a wheelwright, had the mischief, 

come 
Of his strained gearing. 
—The candid earth, by every rock and rill, 
Doth advertise her purpose, to survive 
By billion upon billion solar shears. 
All man's grave fictions of a final lire. 
Should man succomb to frost, or flood— life, 

thence 
May toke new forms and Nature may enthrone 
Some other potentate to sway tlie sphere. 
Clothed with more powers, tlian man's, or 

clothed with less. 

Yet, in Christ's day, when. 
The stars did stir their wicks, 'twas that the 

Jevf 
Might tell his sheckels or might fold his flocks ; 
Tlie Hebrew served, their offices were done. 
Such was the lunacy, unspeakable, 
Tliat held this orb, of all the universe. 
The single sphere, astir, with conscious life. 

—The key to Christ, 
In all, lie said, or did, lies in— THE END ; 
So near, 'twere idle to take thought, to-day. 
E'en for to-morrow : quite impossible. 
But, on this theory, to prove, in Christ, 
Intelligent concern, for man at all : 
Whose communism in a common purse, 
He meant, both, for his lifetime and for theirs. 
Who listened, as he taught, th' END OF THE 

WORLD, 
Scarce, one man's life-time off. 
—The flavor of the soil, is in his words. 
The soil of Syria : Christ did little else, 
Than argue with man's heart— and thro' his 

zeal 
For justice, peace, his meekness had inspired 
Such transcendental ethics as had turned 
E'en to the smiter the un smitten cheek. 
The sweet enthusiast, of Galilee, 
Swept all the strings of human sympathy, 
But, in a singer's freuzj-. 
—So, Christ sought not to found a cult, or sect, 



54 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

But, to give notice of tlie world's END, near : 
Who bade tlie living, stand, in wait, lor it. 
Eeason is constant and what supplements 
Her province, mythic; but, a playwright's 

trick 
To flash a God upon a restive pit. 
Christ, men revere, or worship, lovingly, 
If, but, a nosegay, Virtue pluckt and pinned, 
On the spread lapels of the centuries, 
Hath, yet, therein a perfume, for all time, 
Its flowers, unwithered, as in GalUee. 
Good will to men with charity, is Christ : 
Christianity, a policy, Paul's own ; 
Which cultus frustrates life's economy. 
Would, to a future life, or state, postpone 
Its culmination— arguing this life. 
To one, unprovon, but contributive : 
The question, always, begged, of life to come. 
That sweeping claim, the earth belongs to 

Christ, 
INlen demand proof of, that her destinies. 
Else, have direction, from man's intellect. 
A wrench, in human nature, fancy found, 
And voiced, in fable, reason remedies, 
By much heroic doubt : while, perilous. 
For men, to trifle with a veiled God- 
God, loved, unknown, were better loved, Ihan 

known, 
Ilath, yet, much countenance. 
—In Christ's as in th' Apostles' muiistry, 
Facts, the most unrelated, to make good 
Some prophesy transpu-e— an emphasis 
Laid on the duty of persistent care, 
Prediction to fulfill : prophesy, not 
Left to fulfill itself, denied the aid 
Of a conscious factor. 

—Christ, in his words, were Christ, yet to afi:irm 
What words he spoke defies all inquiry. 
If, he on Peter reared, Ekklesia, 
In the same breath, or, next— him, Christ bade, 

get 
Behind him, Satan-lo 1 a stone how frail 
Tho', hailed, a Petra, Clnrist had builded on ? 
As, Christ conceived of demonology, 
Peter, possest of Satan, even, then. 
Ekklesia, if, ever on Christ's lips, 
By one evangel, vouched for, thereon twice, 
'Twaa on Christ's lips, a synonym to-day, 
As, it Avas, then, for the word synagogue, 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 55 

A congregation, or, a pouring out. 

The pun found on Christ's lips, may be a 

monk's : 
Christ cut a side-door in the synagogue, 
Bade Gentiles enter— his Ekklesia. 
He, as John's greater, re-inforced the cry. 
Behold Heaven's Kingdom is at hand— Repent 
Permanence was no factor, in Ms speech, 
As, to th' economy, of human life, 
He weilded power, from God, anon, to close. 
But, twice, Ekklesia is on Christ's lips, 
Once, in the interview, with Peter, had, 
Once, in regard to a disciple's fault, 
Both, in the first evangel, only, found. 
Pince, in the legend, Peter fell, at Eome, 
A martyr, to the Cross, how natural 
To seek, in him, the corner-stone of power. 
Founded, ere, yet, th' play on th' word was 

writ ; 
Since, 'tis not known, we have a siiigle page 
Of th' evangels, as these, first, appeared; 
As, no transcription vouches for its date, 
Within three centuries, ensuing Christ, 
The keys of Heaven and Hell, may have been 

swung 
With absolution at St. Peter's belt. 
By the same pen that reared the Church, on 

him : 
It, but, in one synoptic, hinted at, 
With the like context, common, to the three ; 
If, true, the fact of prime significance, 
In all Christ said, or did : to Constantine, 
The Church had opportunity to slip 
What words, she would, to fortify herself 
Within th' Evangels— ere the Eoman See 
T^i ashed at Jove's thunderbolts, St. Peter's keys 
Christ caused a schism in Judaistic faith. 
His purpose, but, to have cemented it: 
Nothing was farther from his heart than power 
Organized in hostility, thereto : 
Whose inexhausted love, meant, for the Jew, 
He gave the Gentile— as, a better world, 
A. world, Hebraic, was the mind of Christ. 

Uncultured man conceived, the Deity 
Pleased, with that dearest to his heart, who 

made 
A sacrifice, by blood— wherefore, a son, 
As, nearest to the father's heart, was slain; 
Conception, cruel, horrible and false: 



56 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Therein, the cue to the penman's episode 
Of Abram, tempted, to yield Isaac up : 
Therein, the type of sacrifice, in Christ, 
Acclaimed God's Son. From early sacrifice, 
Men (.^re^v- the notion, God was pleased with 

Christ's, 
As, if, Christ Avere God's veritable Son, 
His death, appointed by the will of God ; 
As, if, a fact and not a metaphor ; 
Closing the dogmas of theology, 
With one. Faith could not, if, she would 

helieve ; 
The Author, of the Universe, Himself, 
Priest, Altar, Victim and Sacrificant, 
Dying, a satisfaction, to his law, 
For sin, by man, the reason of all time 
Had laurelled man with were it true— he fell 
—A Saul of Tarsus, whom, we chiefly know 
Thro' words, by his own cleA^er pen, itself. 
Transmitted to us, undertook the task, 
Of formulating Christ, into a faith. 
Dissenting Jews might, with himself, embrace , 
The synagogue, shut on them : hence, the myth 
Of Eden, to Paul's fancy, bore a sense 
TTnheard of and undreampt of, but, to him : 
Its complement, in an atonement, Christ's, 
Tho' but a crucifixion, to the Jew, 
For blasphemy, before the Jewish law ; 
To, keenly, Avliet the point, of th' Eoman spear 
For treason, also, toward Tiberius • 
^^^lan's fall Avith his recoA^ery— Paul's own. 
— A God, once, doubted were a God no more : 
D'^ny his Godship, yet admit Christ's worth, 
If, not, Avliat, faith demands, what, reason 

must : 
Final theology, but, common sense. 
Not, the first martyr, nor, the last, in Christ, 
To self-deception, if, he spoke the Avords, 
By unknown penmen, credited his lips : 
Over the c'ties, found, in Israel, 
Ye shall not, yet, haA^-e gone, ere Christ be come 
The Gesp'^1, as, ve find it, had no point. 
But, as, the trumpet of the Avorld's end, near ; 
Come, ere, some hanging, on Christ's lips had 

died. 
Such, apostolic, faith ; so, martyrdom 
Ppilt its first blood, to an immediate Christ. 
No prophesy Avas U'^eded to foretell 
The fall of Salem, it so imnnnent, 
To facts transpiring, to th' eA^ents had been. 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 57 

—An almost,, literal sameness, in the text 

01 the synoptics, as, to th' END OF THE 

WORLD, 
I^Iight argue tiie msertion, by the hand 
Of the same penman, of tnis prophesy. 
To give an impetus, to waning faith: 
Christ, haA'ing died, to lack of faith, a man; 
To faith, enough, who rose: thus, to predict 
His hrisk return to close th' economy 
Of Nature had inspired Ms followers 
With zeal prodigious and had martyrdom 
Crowned, on the instant : yet, the theory 
Had stript Christ of His functions, otherwise 
Than, as, a teacher, of all righteousness. 
—Christ, but, a man, no mystery, at all, 
In what, he truly, said, or, truly, did. 
Dismiss that, supernatural— accept. 
As, simply, human, utterances his ; 
Divinitj^ posthumous honors, paid 
By the devotion of his followers; 
By th' veneration— distance, both, in time. 
And space, accords heroic rectitude ; 
While, all he spoke, as. if the voice of God, 
Their utterance, or his, w^ho may harve penned 
Brief memoirs of him ; or, the interleaves 
Of the zealous founders of dogmatic faith, 
And we have Christ, a man, in Galilee, 
Born, unmysterious, living unremarked, 
But, of a s.raggliug, lowiy following, 
Prompt, to forsake him, let a maiden jeer ; 
Whose pregnant saymgs are, as true to-day. 
Fall, just, "as, sweetly, on the ear, as when, 
He voiced them, by tlie wayside and the shore, 
No fab'e, in his life, no mystery. 
—In th' fourth evangel, Greek philosophy 
x\ccentuate8 the Logos and suggests 
Th' affinity, of Christian synthesis. 
With the Buddh'stio formulas of faith; 
With the Platonic ; with the pagan gods. 
Contest, in the ichor, as from th' side of Chriat 
7^ an blood and water : in its authorship. 
As, in its date, uncertain— it appends 
To the sjmoptics, the academy, 
Yet, notes the salient aets and incidents 
In the life of Jesus and with pathos, treats 
The love of Christ for John— while w^oman'a 

love 
Hath, here, memorial touches, for all time. 
—The transcendental, with the mytliical, 
Maj^ long prevail, yet, daily, educate. 



58 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

The tendrils of man's reason, till they clinch 
Kound common sense, at last, that monstrous 

bough, 
"Wlience, Time suspends the \vorld, he doth 

bestride. 
Paradise may accent the Goklen Age, 
When, unlaborious man enjoyed the sphere. 
Whose fruits spontaneous, charmed Ids appetite, 
As, the Gods kissed him, frank and innocent, 
Ere, to disfavor come— and tlie Earth frowned 
And bade him die, but, to persistent sweat. 
Nor, is there, in the book, of Genesis, 
A hint a devil is, nor argument. 
For Satan, in a Serpent, voluble ; 
Yet, the Talmud, of the fable, has made much 
As, a portfolio of the marvelous. 
Therein, th' Arabian tales, well nigh outdone. 
—Man's fall and his recovery are but 
A twin concept of Paul's theology : 
Christ, unaware, that, man in Adam, fell ; 
Of Adam, silent, as Confucius, 
He recognizes no original taint 
In human nature. Thus, the rich young man 
Had entered Heaven, of sheer morality. 
If, Heaven had been— tho' Christ imposed on 

him. 
As, a remarked exception, poverty : 
Who, to a strict observance of the law. 
Had entered Heaven, at last, if Heaven had 

been. 
His vast estate, untouched. Christ could not 

shut. 
By a caprice, Heaven's Gate, on him, or her. 
Who had done all, the law demanded done. 
To enter Heaven's strait gate. Christ, but a man 
The onerous condition, half, suggests 
Replenishment, of the communal purse, 
Thro' a rich proselyte. 
—A dogma, fundamental, thus unknown 
To Christ's own lips, argues the dogma, man's, 
Christ, if himself, a God— and with what force 
The dogma, not, till after his decease? 
A present God and that, not recognized, 
Most vital, to man's weal, how congruous 
His silence, with the fact of Deity ? 
Christ added little to Hebraic faith. 
Beyond the charities— who, scarcely, tore. 
Of th' Jew's phylacteries, one, fairly, off. 
If, Christ knew nothing, of the fall of man. 
It seems a pity- Paul should know so much, 



THE REVOLT OP REASOX. 59 

If, Adam were and fell, who tript, in him, 

If, Justice holds her balance, in the skies ? 

I'lie hrst and second Adam, to research, 

Prove an equation, Faul's— to algebra 

Had negatived the Arab's; life and death 

The dual factors : death to natural law. 

Discarded, for a debt, from lapsing man, 

Due, to his frailty— and eternal life, 

Of God, or, Nature, never, pledged to man. 

The second Adam's gift, thro' faith in him; 

A system, of theology, by Paul, 

Christ had been shocked,to find, sustained, thro' 

him. 
—Saul, from the synagogue, belike, cast out 
As a schismatic, formulates a creed 
To lead, himself, th' assault on Israel ; 
Th' initial fact, a startling miracle, 
He leans against and fulminates his zeal. 
With moving eloquence. 

Christianity, wherein, a victor's wreath. 

Is th' ivy, thriving at the Roman's heel : 

To human nature's cry for sympathy, 

It breaks the sweet pictorial news of Heaven. 

By the Dead Sea the best of Eremites 

With therapeutic hands had scattered seed. 

Which, budding, in the Christ, unfolds a flower. 

Sensitive to the winds of Palestine. 

A better Pharisee, than, were the best. 

This flower, to him, had smelt of Paradise. 

The titillating dust, of Palestine, 

In any nostril, may provoke a sneeze 

At her divinity : the filth is there 

That, ever, was in Jewry, with the greed 

For silver, as, of yore : that, sacred, there. 

Of men's traditions, sacred ; holy ground 

His, who shall tent, in Asia, where, he may. 

—Christ, mythical, is not the Christ, a fact : 

A lowly peasant, bred, in Galilee, 

Who lived a harmless life, persuading men. 

To better, holier living; who, for vice. 

Thro' the reproof of virtue, made a plea, 

Wli.n none had pleaded for her; sympathy 

Endeared him to tlie outcast; common woe 

Imprest on him what warrant, he might hold. 

To lift the fallen up ; in tenderness, 

One, so unlike the scribes of Israel, 

The sanctimonious Jew, oft, spat on him. 

His superb, childlike innocence, of speech, 

Describes the halo round the head of Chriet, 



60 -A MAMMAL ONLY. 

In the Jewish legend: like the utterance 
Of the ethics of pure reason, in a child. 
He seems, like one, who never casts the lead ; 
Of shipwreck, fearless ; so, th' excellent flower 
Of goodness, is too sweet for th' tainted air 
Of silver-clinkiQg Jewry ; goodliness 
Is, in the Christ, a child, turned inside out, 
For emulation, as, man's best estate : 
Bestowing honor, not partaking it— 
His, honor's very self. 
—A peasant's stainless life, in Galilee, 
Like fallow soil, fattening, for thirty years 
To peerless sun and dew, with its first fruits 
O'erflows the bins of Nazareth, to snatch 
From famine, sterile ages : excellence. 
Then, a Sumatra, buried, in far seas, 
Spice-laden winds to Jew and Eoman, hint 
The worth of, quite, unheeded.— Christ did not 
Affect rank, higher, than the social rank 
Of humble Joseph, and in Simon's house. 
Partook the bounty of the fisherman. 
Or, dwelt, a day, with zealous Zaccheus : 
So, purer, Magdalene's company, 
Than, were the brutal, shameless Pharisee's. 
—Christ proffered Gentiles, what, the Jew de- 
clined 
Of th' Gentiles, half accepted— or, who knows 
If, Christ, himself, had, quite, relaxed the scowl. 
Common, to Jewry, for the GcntUe world? 
Do, thou, to otliers, as thou wouldst, that, men 
Should do to thee, was Hillel's, before Christ's; 
In Hillel, not, in Christ, for vulgar ears : 
Ere, Hillel uttered it, the Buddha had ; 
Ere him, historical in India. 
Th' untravelled Galilean knew no more 
Of the world, itself, than Peter did, or Jolm ; 
His horizon was Galilee; Ley »nd 
Were the Gentiles, the barbarians of the Greek 
Of th' patronizing Jew, permitted Heaven, 
Should they accept it, gratefully, a crumb 
From th' Hebrew's table, fallen. Charity 
Loves man, for man's sake ; yet, to fill his bins 
With coruj found, empty— were not half so 

hard 
As, to remit liis faults and with a kiss 
Have done reproving him ; whose life should 

roll, 
A gentle river, fringed with asphodels. 
Perfuming either bank, as lusty winds 
Play with its current ; happiness, but, where, 



THE REVOLT OF EEASON. 61 

Man's own divining rod unearths the ore ; 
C<»inmou, to all the continents, as gold. 
—Christ spake, and oft, so, humbly, ot himself 
No boast of Godship may be, truly, his. 
Devotion plays such pranks with idols, dead; 
She, in a hermit's, hails the voice of God ; 
Him, moital, as a Caesar, she may sit 
With the Immortal Gods, nor, do amiss, 
To wall-eyed wonder : to no evidence, 
Doth Faith appeal, as, often, as, to none. 
Four or five Eremites have trimmed the sails 
Of all the Ages and man's destiny 
Rolls, water-logged, to th' seamanship of tars, 
Who, never, once, sailed out of sight of land. 
—Christianity, if pagan, wherein false. 
Is human, wherein, true : Christ, in men' 

hearts. 
Or, as, in Syria, Christ were, homeless, still. 
Christ re-voiced Greece and India, in his words : 
('iiddhism had drawn a halo ro-ind the head 
Of saintship, ages before Christ was born : 
Whose monks and nuns were sealed to 

chastity ; 
Had, in The Word, hailed God's eternal son; 
Her own compassionate Saviour, she adored : 
She to the rosary, repeated prayers, 
E'en centuries, ere Eome purloined her beads. 
So, the Buddhist, ere th' Christian tolled his 

bell, 
To call to prayer, the faithful ; canonized 
His dead, ere Eome had snuft a whiff thereof. 
—The parallel is faithful thro' Ms life. 
Between the Christ and Buddha : Christ, no 

more. 
Than, due a fancy, thriftier, from the soil 
The spears of Eome had plowed. 
—Gautama, with no pledge of life to come, 
Surprised the unequal East, with fellowship; 
Who brake, of lir^ad and tasted wine, with his, 
In holy friendship, and, then, died, a man. 

Chastity gTows in sweetness, as a flower 

Of stainless white, sprung from a lecherous 

soil. 
Hence, to the East, whose dreamj', idle life 
Doth wallow in the senses, it, that type 
Of sanctity, reputed of the Gods 
In man, or, woman, honored : fruitfulness 
Hath warrant, in all life, from insect up ; 
Barrenness seems life's failure, manifest. 



62 A MAMMAIi ONIiY. 

Celibacy, to eome, means happiness ; 
To some is a necessity; to none 
Awarding merit; it, at best, a wrench 
Of Nature, that must ever cast a doubt 
On enforced chastity— while, secrecy 
Spreads curtained couches, for illicit love. 
Nature made no mistake in sexual love, 
In man, or woman, heightening every grace : 
Good deeds, still sweeter, in each flower tliat 

peeps 
From path or hedgerow along wedded life. 
Or trails around it— with the merit, too, 
Of goodness, so enhanced, had thrust itself 
Between life's clamor and the piteous moan 
Of need, or anguish, to no recompense, 
But, to have hushed it. If, to educate 
Life, to a higher plane, let It consist 
With one emotion, foremost, in the love 
Of man and woman, the incentive, thence 
In joined hands, for every gentle deed. 
While, in two hearts, for one, that throb of joy, 
Worth a King's ransom— who have learned to 

serve, 
Find, theirs, and alway. 

—Christ reproduced the Buddha, yet did more, 
Eeproduced Heaven and Hell, or, with his 

brush, 
Gave the archaic myth, some tints his own ; 
Tho' with a hand, so doubtful, Heaven and 

Hell 
Are antique, weathered figments, indistinct 
As, to the Persian, or, the Hellenist. 
Obscurity is, ne'er, an argument. 
For inspiration, or divinity ; 
A God should speak a lucid dialect ; 
Something, to say, or, nothing, seems the 

horns 
Of a dilemma, God's. 
—A life, beyond, was, ever, in debate. 
In ail the ancient schools ; but, never, these 
Had ventured higher proof, than, kindling 

hope. 
Metempsychosis, with the learned few, 
And vulgar many, had an early rise; 
While, Socrates and Plato, but refined 
Traditions, of a soul, undying, man's. 
For incarnation, on the alert, when, lost. 
The vehicle, it, late, had occupied : 
Or ceasing to be personal, absorbed 
In what, philosophy would postulate 
The Supreme Essence: and ere science wa«. 



TRfi REVOLT OP REASON. 63 

Such seemed, a rational egress from the net, 
Thought and emotion spread for th' ancient 

schools. 
In th' Egyptian, in the Druid, found, 
Where'er a Hindoo, or a Bushman breathes. 
In Madagascar, e'en, the vagary, 
To punish, or, to purify the soul- 
Migrating, ever, into man, or beast; 
In poisonous reptile, insect, plan t, re-born, 
Till, quite absorbed, in Bralima, or extinct. 
In the Nirvana. 

The simple verities Christ re-inforced 

Are old as human reason— for pray, whence 

Comes any Gospel, reason may approve, 

But, as she harvests man's experience, 

Or dives down consciousness, for pearls, 

therein?! 
Th' essenic master of the healing art, 
Christ, from the Mount, is Christ to history : 
Wlio, thence, rehearsed the charities, to uion 
Turning their ulcers toward him, as they pass. 
While, Christ re-set some antique jewels, man's. 
He paid too dear for hope— since hope itself. 
Is not an element of faith, but giU, 
On any felon's chains. 

Of Nature's subtle properties, when best, 
But, darkly, known ; wherein, medicinal 
Wielded, so, oft, by charlatans, time may 
Make, yet, discovery— and miracles 
Of healing to our science, may seem tame. 
Yet, th' imagination, thro' the nervous force, 
Joint, with the will, may possibly liave done 
Of healing, prodigies and, yet, may do. 
Imagination hath, e'en said— Go out. 
To-morrow, by this hour and life obeyed. 
No miracles, performed, to lack of f jiith, 
Argues, th' imagination, a prime force. 
In th' art of healing, in the time of Christ. 
Mesmeric arts, with arts, the magi's own, 
The Essenes may have wielded, masterly. 
Yet, veritable, miracles had been 
The source, itself, of faith. 
—Christianity, invading pagan soil. 
Had no vocation, but, for pharmacy, 
Displayed, in one hand, and for surgery, 
Borne in the other : what gave currency 
To Christ, in Jewry, was his healing art, 
While, in the otfices of charity, 



64 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Is merged, to-day, the lowly Nazarene. 

The Gospels seem the fabulous life ol Christ, 

With his terse pastoral sayings, interspersed. 

—bo, we have Christ a stuciy, as a man ; 

Olt, an unsparing radical, aitho', 

In every hair of all his head, a Jew. 

He, a rare dower, in ralestine, that awed 

As, by its presence, the male violence 

Jostling around it : scarce, a heel but had 

Bruised it, to opportunity ; the fact. 

Of goodness, then, as, ever, targeted 

To envious arrows. There is not a heart. 

That, yet, has tlirobbed with love, for him, a 

man, 
Hath throbbed, with half, had been, for Christ, 

enough, 
As, th' martyred Son of Joseph and his spouse. 
The guard of holiness, was holiness, 
In him, without succession and were, still. 
To holiness, a fact, its sole defense. 
Christ, of the Jew accused of blasphemy, 
Slain by th' unwilling Eonian, presents all 
Christ was, and that most human : aftei- 

warda 
To proof by Jewish witnesses, alone, 
To proof, judicial, none— quick, from the dead. 
So, all the spires, of Christendom, ascend 
To Mary Magdalene's theory. 
Of the empty sepulchre. 
— 'Twas an opinion, common, to the Jews, 
Still, current, when the Gospel text w as penned, 
That, his disciples, while the guard had slept, 
Snatched from the tomb the body of their 

Lord ; 
His resurrection and ascension stood, 
On the announcement, Christ was not therein, 
By the two Marys, early, at the grave. 
He, who espoused the dogma— Christ had risen, 
Would overthrow the dogma— Christ had not ; 
Whence, may have sprung the charge, that the 

guard were bribed, 
Of clemency, assured, their guilt exposed. 
To give it currency, that, while they slept 
Christ's own disciples stole him from the tomb. 
—Here, God be thanked for a man, dead, be 

praised 
Had turned upon his bier : virtues, remarked, 
In other men, find multiples in him. 
Arithmetic had paled at : while, this man. 
Gentle as woman, tender as her heart. 



THE REVOLT OP REASON. 65 

Composed liimsolf to duty and it, done, 
Why not, inter liira ? 

—Christ left his words in th' air of Galilee, 
Then, went the way of death, like other men ; 
E'en woman's faith, at resurrection halts, 
Hers, spices, to embalm him, erewhile, slain, 
Who slept, sleeps on, his grave, in Palestine. 
Christ, the best man, in the best teacher, man's, 
A pupil, having said it, 'twere enough. 
A human Christ demands, of living men 
More offices of honor, than, 'twere theirs. 
To pay his virtues : what may manhood do. 
Of good or great, of manly or divine. 
He hath not done, e'en done more masterly. 
Than, in th' examples, that incentived him ? 
Tho' the Ages long for such men, each when, 

come 
His Age may doubt of, while, the next, con- 
cludes 
To disinter him, as men have, the Christ. 

Penury 
Christ made the coin of heaven and thereon 

struck 
His image, smartly ; who, in poverty, 
Descried an evil, that must, always, be: 
Human, who had no remedy— a God 
Who hath withheld it. JNature doth not breed 
Poverty, man creates it— on w^iose fame. 
Its stigma strives with murder. 
—The Zend-Avesta is more marvelous 
Than, that, astounding, in the Gospel text. 
Which it, well, antedates, by centuries ; 
Who knows, how many ? resurrecting man. 
E'en with his mortal body— the world's END, 
Come and the judgment, in Messiah, sat, 
Acclaimed Sosiosh : immortality, 
The keynote of the Zoroastrian faith, 
With Heaven and Hell, defined, as done, to- 
day : 
A Hellenistic fountain ; while, the Jew, 
The Roman and the West have drank thereof 
Hail ! Zoroaster, thou, on lentils, fed, 
What mischief came of thee, O, Eremite? 

Christ failed, a Prince, and having died, a man, 
Reverent Judeans raised him from the grave, 
And laid strange words of Godship on his lips. 
In their memorials of him : once, a God, 
Thence, such delusions, as eschew debate. 
On marble gods, men stumbled, everywhere. 



66 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

What time, man's reason hailed the "Caesars, 

Gods, 
And reared them altars— Gods and mira'^les, 
The gossip of that era. 

As, the Gods appear 
Facts, in the daybreak, to be seen and heard, 
Cited, at noon, invisible— the close 
Of the hrst chapter of man's chronicles, 
Is>, perhaps, written, and hereafter, God 
May seem, what, God must be, to God, himself, 
Law, lixt, unchangeable. 
—God's in the world, as much, as, ever, God, 
Tho', man hath less assurance on his lips 
Of intimate acquaintanceship, with Him, 
God, gTeater, in man, less : if, moved thereto, 
God could not save what light extinguishes. 
—Appeal to miracles, so, final, once. 
Were an appeal to raw credulity : 
Conceded, late, proof of divinity, 
Mii'acles, but, premise the fabulous ; 
For th' miracles, to Jesus, credited. 
In kind and number, pale, if, named, with 

those. 
His saints did, afterwards, vouched for, like 

his. 
Of common rumor and eye witnesses; 
Of, by the fancy of the fabulist— 
Wlio raised the dead, performed more prodigies 
Than Jesus had, in all his weary life 
A miracle, to every breath, he drew. 

But, when the house 
Of Joseph, built at Nazareth ; wherein. 
The very Christ grew filial, suddenly, 
At midnight, rides the air aligliting last, 
Loretto's shrine, since, for six hundred years; 
His home, traditional, at Nazareth 
In the Latin Convent, shrined, albeit, still. 
With the workshop, too, of th' godly carpenter 
To heal the sick, or, blind, to raise the dead. 
To east out devils, to turn water wine, 
Wliat, these, if, named wdth that ? an argu 

ment 
For faith, man leaves unchallenged, with the 

blood 
Of Januarius, that liquifies. 

To prayer, tri-yearly. Who shall dare, lo urge 
All man's experience, against his faith. 
Who would believe and doth ? What roused 

the zeal 
Of th' crusaders like th' bones of th' saints 



THE REVOLT OP REASON. 67 

What shall prove holy, even, fanes to-day, 
Unless, these relics, with their miracles? 
Imagination doth, what God had not. 

In prison, languishing', despondent John, 
Misgiving him, he, late, announced, the Christ, 
In that, no hand flung, wide, his prison door- 
Sent messengers to Jesus, fainting hope 
T' assure, he was the Christ— wlio^e proof, to 

John, 
Argued his feats of healing, while, to the poor 
The Gospel was proclaimed : therein, a stoop 
That, the back of pride had broken, then, t' 

have made, 
Yet, in a God, to breathe of rich and poor. 
With sharp distinction, had dis-spliered the Sun 
Of His divinity; to \\hom, alone, 
i)istinctions fade— who had not, penury. 
Hailed, meritorious, such its revenues. 
Beyond existence: but, ha.d blotted out. 
The sharp distinction, with a whitt of scorn ; 
Had done, at once, \%hat man, still, seeks to do, 
T' abate the evil. 

—Christ did not snatch the gory head of John 
From th' wanton's charger and to th' quivering 

trunk, 
Ri^store it, quickly— whom, no greater, born 
Of woman, had been ; but withdrew afar 
The most significant of all his acts, 
Clouding omnipotent power, or privilege. 
At any time, a miracle, then, here : 
Not, here, where, else, the courage of a God? 

So incompetent, 
Met, with the Greek or Eoman, seems the Jew, 
To limn the awful features of a God ; 
Such as once hushed th' air of th' Parthenon, 
Or, by the Forum, cowed a Cicero 
Who," even, doubted, of him. What a hinge 
To swing Heaven's gate on, words, cast to 

the winds 
Of Galilee, to treasure ? or, the mouth 
Of Hell to shut, or, open, to a voice. 
Heard, but, of few, some doubted, if, a Gods? 
—Christ taught some simple peasants, how to 

bear 
Humbly, the Eoman yoke, in parables, 
Gauged, to their reason. They were fishermen, 
To superstition, bred; whose eyes descried 
What others' eyes see not; whose ears had 

heard 



68 ' A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Wliat, landsmen's ears have, never, hecrd, 

nor, shall : 
The frank, yet, treacherous sea had toyed with 

them, 
Had tost them, on his billows ; their delight, 
The perils of the storm— while, to the calm, 
Their hearts had leapt, to legends of the deep 
Credulity had set their mouths agape. 
And reason may not close them— such, were 

they 
Who followed Christ, as, in the legend, told. 
Reverence for Tradition, nothing, else. 
Restrains men, from exclaiming— Lo ! the tale 
Of Christ, is, but, by fishermen ; each fact 
Vouched for, on nautical authority. 

—Cowardice appears. 
In every action of the fishermen. 
Who joined his fortunes : so, he bears his cross, 
To woman's tears and John's ; in all whose life, 
No act, of one of his disciples, proves 
Faith, Godship had inspired ; it competent 
T' assume the marvelous is, but, the fringe 
Of orient fancy, on his stainless robe. 
—Luke's preface, to his Gospel, stirs the doubt 
He meant to silence, in Theophilus, 
Since, what had come from Heaven had proved 

itself. 

His, all virtues, man's. 
Had sweetened with fair uses his brief life, 
And surnamed swollen Charity, the Nile, 
In honor of its flood ; 'tis cowardice 
Makes man a villain ; it is bravery 
Must ralso him to the stars. Christ was, to 

man. 
Brother, to that man, lost, Avho had not found 
A kinsman, to stand by him ; whose own heart 
Burst, at Jerusalem, in martyrdom, 
To supreme charity ; and Christ, alive. 
To Roman clemency, in morals, yet. 
Dead, to the bigot's poison, in the spear. 
Displays th' historic halo, round his head. 
Elisha multiplies the crus*^ of oil ; 
So, Christ the fishes and the barley loaves ; 
Elisha gives the mother back her son ; 
While, Christ restores to Mary, Lazarus : 
The newer Canon dovetails, in the first. 
—Man's miracles of healing are, as old 
A«, his traditions and their verity 
St.'inds t.» riedulity, quite, uniinp'eaohcd. 
Him, of Tyana, born, ere Christ was born; 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 69 

Witli liim, of Sicily, then, Ages, dead, 

With him, of Crete, wliose miracles command 

The voice of Delphos— man's traditions, eacli 

A\\ard tlie honors of divinity. 

So, tlie Sicilian rodo into the skies, 

A mortal, living ; and when he was born, 

The prophet of Tyana and contest 

Divinity within him, magic, then. 

Had rcivaged Konie, in all her provinces ; 

Of Eome, more dreaded, than, a pestilence ; 

Than, all the amours of th' Olympian Gods, 

When, Nero, by his edict, dipt the wings 

Of magic, in mid-flight — w^hile, far from Eome 

The prophet of Tyana healed the sick. 

The skill of Apollonius, divine; 

Who died, in his own bed, unlike the seer 

Of Sicily, who, to the Immortal Gods, 

Would pass, undying, and had, cleverly, 

Had Etna held not, grinning, in her teeth, 

A brazen saiidal. Miracles, of old. 

Were, to mnn's reason, what the oyster is, 

To man's digestion, and such aliment, 

Of sickly reason, craved, craft well supplied 

No w-eapon, so like Thor's, that, oft, as hurled 

Sought the God's hand, afresh. 

—The vulgar herd demanded miracles, 

T' authenticate the Gods— no evidence, 

Half, so convenient, or voluminous: 

Hence, to the Supernatural, appeal 

Down all his annals, till man laughed aloud 

When, lo ! the Gods w^cre dumb. 

—Who shall say, 
^hrist, ever, for Himself, made other boast 
Than, as the Son of Joseph ? Wlio shall say, 
What, in his life, is true, what fabulous? 
Thus, Daniel, if, not Daniel to the age 
Credited with this prophet, prophesy, 
Were false, tho' vouched for by the lips of 

Christ. 
So, if Christ hung on th' peak of Ararat, 
The gorgeous Crown of a Divinity, 
It hangs there, yet, if, not to th' letter, true, 
Noah sailed a drowmed world and stranded 

there. 
If, Jonah sailed not in a fish's maw. 
Three days, th' Internum INIare, every claim - 
Of Christ, to Godship, fails. 'Tis possible, 
Both, tho prediction of Christ's death, itself, 
And resurrection are an after thought 
Of pens, that hailed the resurrection, true, 



70 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

And would by Christ's prophetic lips assist 
Faith to accept it. 

—Deucalion and Pyrrha were preserved, 
Whei, man incurred the enmity of Zeus 
While safely on Parnassus, strands the ship 
Deucalion built, to ride tlie nine days' flood, 
As, all mankind, not in the ship, were drowned : 
So partial were the Gods, to piety, 
The Flood is proof, of pure benificence : 
Thus, human, Gods, whose methods were man's 

own. 
Or, below reason's. 

—Who knows what memories, prehistoric man's. 
Transmitted thro' what eras— cataclysms. 
As, of a continent, gone down the wave, 
Or, of one, risen, boldly from the sea ? 
Traditions, by the shore, affect a ship. 
Well ballasted and trimmed, with man and 

beast 
Eiding, well piloted a six days' flood ; 
Whose inland versions seem unnautical, 
As, of an ark, or, chest, nor stem, nor stern. 
So, from the cave-man and the drift-man, do- .-n 
Tradition may have plowed its tortuous way ; 
While, from a watery horizon had sprung. 
The earth, unknown, a universal flood. 
Geology appeals to heat and cold. 
To Continents, emergent, from the deep, 
Eons— as factors, to relieve a Flood, 
Of labors, multiform, no flood had done, 
Tho', universal, half a century. 
—What, Ptolemaios penned a hundred years 
After Christ's exit, was astronomy 
As understood in Christ's day, when the earia 
Stood, central, to the universe, a point 
Round which all planets swung: such ignor- 
ance, 
Vet, unrelieved, hints what it must, that ClirisT 
Knew nothing, of the spheres— since, to one 

flash 
Of divine science, both astronomy 
And the, yet, guessed-at Cosmos, st.ood unveiled 

—Ptolemy 
Waits Copernicus, an abutment, stood, 
Against the boUmg strait, where, life went down 
Whose lenses drift ashore, whereat the earth 
Wheels, on her axis and rolls lonnd the ^'ln 
Since, then, all knowledge, with the merit in. 
Of science, is man's product— all beyond, 
Pure speculation. 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 71 

—Astronomy assures man, he enjoys 

A sciualid quarter of the Universe; 

E'eu, by her glasses demonstrates the fact : 

In Sirius, \vitue:s, to a sun, wherein, 

Quite, twenty sccre the vital force, of ours, 

While, in Canopus, countless suns, in one. 

A paltry system, in the Milky Way, 

Ours, if, but, named, with systems in mid-sky. 

That, in to-day's, or in to-morrow's glass, 

May with their satelit?s squeeze, one, by one, 

Tio patient science, in the astronomer. 

In man's own system, think, of Neptune s 

track, . 

Of near two centuries, around the sun ; 
A solar year, to her inhabitants. 
Jupiter,^ vaster, by four hundred times,, 
Saturn, eight hundred, vaster, Neptune, too. 
E'en four-score times, tlian is the dwindling 

earth— , . ., 

How, dwarft, in his own household, man 

appears ? 
The life of man, were it longevity, 
Like tlieirs, in fable, 'twere not long enough, 
To cover half the time, a ray of light 
Consumes, in transit, from some unseen star. 
To this vainglorious orb. 

Pitiful era, Avhen a lunatic 

Was one posssst of demons, or, one, struck 

Of a malignant planet : him, disease 

Threw on the gTound to rave, a man possest 

Of devils seven, or, multiples of seven : 

Yet, such the era, man's latuity 

Has garlanded with aureoles of light. 

What creed is true ? If, faith be made the test. 

All creeds are true to zeal or votive blood. 

—To f-lay a true man, in a felon's stead, 

Is a device, by man, its equity 

Defyu'g the best moral microscope. 

To make it, visible : to postulate, 

Justice is satisfied, thro' shedding blood, 

Tho' innocent, for crime, at her assize, 

Tried and convicted, is a maxim, false: 

In substitution, a sheer subterfuge, , 

Which, none saw clearer, than, the ancient 

did : 
Yet, it afforded license, to the strong, 
To do their pleasure and to substitute 
Victims, for crimes, their own, before the law : 
To loop-holes of escape, power, riotous. 



72 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

To proffer justice a clean, innocent life, 
For Ms, who reeks witli blood, had seemed 

absurd. 
E'en, to the wretch, who slipt the noose, 

thereby. 
—The essence of the Gospel cult is faith; 
J L8 secret is a banquet, for the heart : 
Eeason is nob invited to the feast; 
But the affections gorge them and lie down 
On beds of resurrection, joyously. 
His sweet emotions, who has been forgiven 
Offences, if,, but, fancied, with his love 
For one who suffers, as, his substitute. 
For crimes charged mortal— altho' fanciful. 
Has lent the Western Cult, whate'er its hold 
On man's aft'e tions. Everything, in Christ, 
Not, pagan, clings to Galilee; is, still, 
In th' box of ointment, in the human voice. 
Tender, of woman— while, the venal Jew, 
It rebuked, roundly : in each incident, 
Of love, or virtue, in a guileless life. 
—Yet, grant a Heaven and Hell and man's, a 

soul 
That must survive him ; then, conceive, how 

frail 
Were that device, to rescue man, if, lost, 
Had saved, scarce one, of every million, born? 
Tho' such the Western Cult, that predicates 
Salvation, thro' the voiced, or written word ; 
Perdition, theirs, who fail to hear, or read. 
How many, hear or read, of all mankind? 
The blunder is not God's, when, a device 
Is charged on Him and the device lias failed 
Each popular Cult presumes to solve the doubt 
Of man's experience, best, by cutting it ; 
Treating man, hence, with life in Heaven or 

Hell, 
Life, here, a dismal failure : but, life here 
Is all man hath assurance of who, dead. 
All Nature's voices In^eak forth, fitly dead. 
—The grace of God, in a dilemma, found, 
Reason, not revelation, hath made bold 
To whisper, gently, of, probation, hence, 
Whereat, the cry of heresy is raised : 
Ermine, in banco, scarlet, in that, faith 
Demands, of justice, on her doubts, to make 
Deliverance, final.— Faith awaits a fall, 
Fallen, erewliile, l)ut for her legs of gold, 
T^a^al, ns Jiipi<^er's— like his, wherein, 
It left no ripple, on th' peace of th' world. 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 73* 

What evil has not come of the Hebrew's pen 
Voted, the wisdom, of Almighty God? 
What blood, in God's name, shed, by zealots' 

steel? 
What vigils, kept, of faith, to no reward? 
What fears have dashed the pleasures of this 

life? 
Wliat dreams have crazed the lives of fasting 

saints, 
Like, th' fascination, that doth o'erpersuade 
The wretch, to plunge into the seetMng sea. 
Stood, on a beetling crag? 
—What, in the Western Cult, best, serves man- 

kmd 
Is th' guileless anthem, pitched, in Galilee, 
To man's atrocious pride, in blossom, there. 
Had God a message for the human race 
He had not left it with twelve fishermen 
To memorize and publish ; since, the act 
Were charged with nameless cruelty, to men, 
Who fail to hear it-yet, the fault, not theirs, 
Denied a yea, or nay : to think, of God, 
Each nerve had tingled, to his equity. 
Must light and shade fall, man's, from 

Palestine ? 
Hath Nature, not, for all her continents, 
A love, to each, peculiar, yet, her best? 
Christianity is welcomed, less, for the pledge. 
She makes, of life, beyond, than, kindness, 

here : 
Her kiss and alms, the miracles, alone, 
That raise her to esteem; whose name shall, 

yet. 

Be changed to Charity, her proper name, 

Stript, of all, supernatural, the husk, 

Charity may have ripened in. 'Tis true, 

Christ did not, soon, return, as, in his life. 

He, oft, predicted— thus, Christianity, 

In yielding ground to waning miracles, 

Is ethical, or, nothmg : Avhile, therein. 

Lies all the merit of her history; 

All evil, her pretensions, unsu stained. 

Evangelizing man Avere teachhig him, 

Tlio Golden Paile, with ethics— more than this, 

S^eems, but, new lessors, in mythology, 

The pagan bolts, to Western pharmacy. 

Yet, vomits, shortly : Westernized, a man. 

An oriental, to tradition, still. 

Nothing, to dread from more intelligence. 

Spring how, or, whence, it may ; tho' avarice 



74 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Suffer, proioundly, merchandizing liglit. 
The l>est, the Supernatural has done 
For man, has been to roast him— liistory 
Proves, little, in its favor, but this fact."^ 
Man and the Supernatural may not, 
Co-exist, longer, without loss, to man, 
Of all his manhood's honor : let us have 
The conflict o'er and peace. 
—When few men thought, the priesthood 

thought for men ; 
Y/hen all men think, the priesthood shall have 

been. 
No moral power has contravened man's own, 
In human history : God, in what, we hear, 
Behold, or feel, is a fact, polyglot, 
Our hearts contain, our senses reverence. 
Our wills obey, or, would: the field for faith, 
God, the Immutable, in natural law. 
Man is, to man, himself, the universe ; 
Nothing, to man, worth knowing, not, of man. 
In common sense, the world is drowned, at 

last, 
The first authentic deluge of the earth. 
Since geologic eras. 
— Wliat, in Christianity, is mythical. 
Had sphered by the fifth century, till then 
But, formless chaos. Christ, to us, appears, 
Tho', to his precepts, a discarded Jew, 
An afterthought of many centuries, 
Platonized down to Athanasius, 
Thence, the suggestion, of the Vatican. 
In no succeeding Council of the Church, 
Ignorance, sucli, as in the first, prevailed, 
In the fourth century— whose famous acts 
Were, scarce, recorded, half traditional, 
Its chief transactions. Superstition, then, 
By Pappus and Sabinus told, at Nice, 
Resolved the Scriptures into those, inspired. 
Those, uninspired, by casting all the books 
Beneath a table, whence, to prayer forsooth, 
Upon the table, those, inspired appeared. 
Immobile, all the rest— a miracle, 
To the majority, hardly,, to such, 
As, had composed the Canon, ere the prayer 
The brain of the first Council, Constantino, 
A dabstor, he, in arts, miraculous, 
With Alexandria's bishop and a clique, 
Crafty„ as he, thes? wield their credulous peers. 
—The Father, Word and Holy Ghost, there are ; 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 75 

Whticli three, in Heaven, bear witness and are 

one: 
Words, in John's letter, flowing from some pen 
Inked, after the first Council, to sustain 
A dogma, man's, to copious argument, 
Att'ecting inspiration : Trimurti, 
As, th' first conception of a trinity, 
In Hindoo— and in Greek mythology, 
Zeus, Pluto, Neptune— if, no archetype. 
Pregnant suggestion. So a Synod's vote. 
The Incarnation ; for which, precedent, 
In Hindoo, Greek and Eoman liistory. 
Sprang, of debate, most stormy, faith, itself. 
As, th' vote, of the majority, wherein, ' 
Obnoxious, not to fagots. It appears 
Blood, if, the seed of the Church, is error's 

too. 
Devotion, incident, to policy. 
If, pagan, or, if. Christian, ever, one. 

—Can it be, that Christ, 
Is th' shuttlecock in th' game of battledore, 
la not, himself, the all-absorbiug game? 
Man, ever, has been an idolater, 
Permit him idols— eagerly were, yet ; 
Whose policy has been, to substitute 
One idol for another and his gods. 
To dethrone, moribund. Wherein, the Church, 
Eeligion is a product of the sword, 
As, well, as thrones are ; all her annals writ 
In such accursed blood as dare dissent 
From faith, already, crowned : in origin, 
However, holy, it is history, 
' One creed supplants another, by the sword ; 
While, purse and sword are, ever, orthodox. 
E'en, Christ, himself, heretical, his voice 
Had sunk, as hollow, as Olympian Zeus'— 
No Phidias by, to stay the sinking God, 
With gold and ivory, warranted, divine. 
—The Cross is old as Egypt as a sign : 
Baptism, a rite, much older than the Christ ; 
Older than Buddha, with significance 
Wherein, symbolic, Christian, much therein 
Distinctly, pagan : so each festival 
Partakes of the pagan faith, it represents : 
For th' early Fathers, pagans born and bred,' 
Had, scarce, sustained a faith, not mythical. 
Hence, the mythology, of th' Christian Cult. 
For Saturnalias, we have carnivals, ^ — 

Tho' change, of name had left a vice, uri' 

changed. 



76 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

—Day, festive, to the Sun, in all the East, 

When he had paused at Capricorn, the birth 

Of' Christ, was made to synchronise therewitli. 

Thenceforth, a festival four hundred years 

After Ms burial : Christmas, thus, a day 

Sacred in Eome, to Bacchus ; Persia's own 

In the mediating Mithras; festival. 

In Egypt, India, even, in Cathay, 

As, in the yule-log of the pagan North, 

To the returning Sun, past history. 

—Jove, scourged from Eome, returned : his 

temples, burnt. 
He, of their smoking ruins, built them o'er. 
The clever God but changed his name and 

state, 
"Who, to more light, than erst the Sire of 

Heaven, 
Had mustered, well, withiu him, gleams with 

rays, 
That, from without him, flood his broadening 

brows. 

Poverty, as an incident of life. 

Dates, ever, from man's culture : savagery 

Holds riches, common : yet, the fleetest foot. 

Like the best arrow, wins, in th' equal chase. 

Of no condition, is equality 

To be afiirmed, but, as the equal right 

Of each, to excel all others, if, he may. 

Want is not a condition of man's life, 

Tho' half may spring from man's conceit, it is 

And is, withal. Heaven's gate. 

—Poverty is an incident and not, ♦ 

A fact, that human nature may not waive. 

Man's rags are, half, his folly, half, his sires', 

Thro' countless generations, who have twanged 

Their sacred harp strings to such psalmody, 

As, poverty hath merit, in itself. 

O, what, a day were that, when poverty 

Shall find no face to pinch ? 

—Hath the world naught, but, Eope, for 

penury ? 
It hath the very marrow of the earth, 
To flesh her bones with; hath th' uncounted 

gold 
Long scattered to the winds, the price of 

Heaven. 
The riches doled to faith, on the joint fact 
Of cold and hunger, spent, if, wisely, spent, 
Had made half tropical e'en Arctic frost. 



THE REVOLT OF EEASON. 77, 

Had polislied her shrunk flesh to ivory. 

—What a spectacle. 
Of murder, craft, deceit and violence. 
Yet, tins a minor planet ? Man, unmade. 
Might be man, well, made over : hope were 

salve, 
Stale, as from gallipots of Pompeii, 
T' anoint a sore with, if the sore be old. 
As, is man's reason— waiting, yet, the knife. 
Man, homeless, to misfortune, or, unthrift, 
Anticipates home, dead ; which sovereign cure 
For tu ills of poverty, by t-pitliets. 
Pagan and Christian, hailed alike, is hope. 
Classic Pandora and nomadic Eve, 
Have, each, left hope, unchallenged, having 

done, 
Mischief, not, soon repaired, once, in the blood. 
Of common ancestry. The sealed jar, 
By th' one unsealed, and in her consort's home. 
The other's curious fruit intimidate 
The Ages, still, because the lies are old. 
Hope is no remedy for human ills, 
It never cured one— is a quack's resort. 
In his last nostrum : hope is not an end ; 
Is, if, a staff, a frail one. Evidence, 
That shall make clear man's ills, must prompt 

each act, 
Armed, to undo them. Hope, not fortitude. 
Both, to endure and conquer, were a myth. 
Dead, as Pandora. 

—Power, absolute, made, scarce, a note of man. 
But, to swell armies ; hence, despairing slaves 
Conjured with hope, till, she invented life 
Eternal, to correct the mischief in. 
Of life, that, by the changes of the moon, 
Eeels off, to secret sighs, a fragile skein, 
Tangled, by demons. 
—Think, of that structure, boasting Jesus' 

tomb, 
Its shattered dome, ere while, a plea for war ? 
Did Christ rebuke the money-changers late ? 
A tenfold plea for his rebuke, to-day, 
As hostile clans, to a divided faith 
Would honor Jesus. Yet, what spot on th' 

earth, 
With zealot and fanatic, pestilent. 
As the reputed spot where Christ was laid ? 
WTiat does it mean, if true, the lowly Christ, 
And he, the very God, lay there, as dead. 
This tomb has cost such lunacy and blood? 



78 A MAMMAIi ONLY. 

Christ, if, a God, could. Jie survey that spot, 
Of Christless bigots seized and yet not rock 
That soil, with such an earthquake as had 

swampt 
The jostling wretches, to which, that on file 
At his decease, had been an incident, 
Not worth recital? 

Stni, round his Salem, hideous, wails the Jew, 
Ages, expectant, of a Prince from Heaven, 
T' restore her glories ; he, a maniac, 
To his traditions. For three thousand years. 
The Hebrew hath with scrupulous care ful- 

fiUed 
His seers' predictions, and is, yet, absorbed, 
In making good the fancies of his bards; 
Who, at their consummation, well divines 
Salem's renown, his own Messiah come. 
—Martyrdom, for one's country is divine. 
And glorifies the martyr— otherwise, 
Oft, epidemical, in history, 
A morbus, like the plague. Eeason taaintains, 
That, if a God, Christ had come down the skies. 
At the cry of martyrdom, and waived its blood 
Godlike, wherein, die rescued innocent lives. 
Christ, if a God, upon some gala^day. 
In Eome, had entered tlie Coliseum, 
Had strode to Caesar's seat— before his eyes. 
Had lockt each lion's jaws and every pard's, 
Satisfied with their faith, who had not bled, 
To fasting lions, tho', resigned to bleed. 
Nor, were a dungeon, dark enough to quench 
His eye, intent, to light th' escape of him. 
Immured for Christ's sake : there had been no 

flame. 
To lick a martyr's blood up, hot enough. 
Who would be burnt, e'en, for a dogma's sake. 
An infinite God and personal were shocked, 
In him, who bled, in ihim, who vaunted blood. 
The common madness of an era, Faith's. 
If mart^T-dom were possible, to-day 
To th' Western Nations, every throne had cast 
A vote against ^it : yet, to th' praise of Christ, 
It was not he, that cost the West her blood. 
But th' fabulous husk of Paul's Christianity. 
Faith makes a bigot, whence a murderer 
To occasion scenting blood. 

—At Superstition, Paul affects to r-iil, 
Himself, the key-stone in the arch of fear; 
Wlio, found, in Athens, argues with the Greek, 



THE REVOLT OF REiLSON. 79 

And bids him tliink with. Paul: the cultured 

Greek 
Smiled, at the frank barbarian, and his stole 
Di-ew tightlier round liim. 
—Paul, as a bigot, with indifference, 
Had shed his own, or spilt another's blood, 
Whose fancy left him, sensitive, to sights 
And sounds, unearthly : in the life of Paul, 
The right to self-deception, cardinal : 
Whose arguments are, oft, chimerical 
As any, in the Talmud ; yet, the Cross, 
Is planted, not, on Calvary, but leans 
Against Pauline, dogmatic utterance. 
Calvin's and Paul's polemic institutes 
Bear common warrant— false, to reason, false: 
So, each had burned, or stoned a man to death. 
Who differed from him, with authority. 
For the atrocious crime, clear, as his right. 
To speak the mind of Heaven : who burns a 
^ man, 

His girdle, hung with all, he, ever, writ. 
Partakes the murderer, with him, who held 
Their raiment, who stoned Stephen, 

—Had Ananias been the, first, to lie, 

In Hebrew annals, it had seemed most fit. 

To slay him on the spot, with his true wife, 

Sapphrra, who had seconded her lord's 

False affirmation : an inequity, 

Tho' fabulous, without a precept in : 

Mendacity, a common privilege 

Of men and women, to the era, bred. 

A rumor of the miracle had caused 

A copious stream t' o'erflow the treasury. 

Wherein, belike, the motive, to the tale. 

From Zoroaster down, what man is prone 
T' assume, as evil has been, oft, revampt, 
The Persian in new garb— whose Ahriman, 
Whose Ormunzd, to the Jew, reflects the rays 
Th^ Jew illumed the West with : hence, to-day, 
Hail ! Zoroaster, gives to Light its due, 

—In the Parusia, by the Talmudist, 

Both Jew and Gentile, frankly, are apprised 

That, men shall grow nine hundred feet in 

height. 
One grape, itself, a cargo for a ship. 
While every son of Abram shall beeet 
Quite sixty thousand souls, as many Jews 
As sallied forth from Egypt ; sympathy. 



§0 A MAMMAL ONLf. 

Pouring, a flood, from every Hebrew heart. 

In t'he infertile Gentile's : Paradise, 

More, than, restored in a Jerusalem, 

Let down from Heaven. So a millennium, 

By Zoroaster dreampt of, should ensue 

Ahriman's triumph and the crafty Jew 

Made half his vestments of this Eremite's. 

— Mahommed restores Venus, satisfied, 

To wind Arabia, in the jewelled arms, 

Of Georgians, here, and Houris, in a hence, 

Pledged, to the faithful ; to which reeking Lie 

Confest half Europe, with the land of Christ, 

Half Africa and Asia. So, the barb. 

The Arab mounts, neighs, yet, to victory, 

His prayerful rider, saddled, hopefully, 

To raven hair and eyes, that wait him, hence. 

Arabia outstrips Jewry, by a stretch, 

JewrsT" shall, ne'er, recover ; while the sword 

Achieved the empire, lechery holds fast. 

—Mahommed rose, too late, to pose a God, 

If, but, in the sixth century, too late 

For fable not to blush, at the word— divine ; 

Who lived and died a Prophet, with less faith 

In Allah's arm, than, in Damascus steel : 

Whose fasting made an Arab, one, inspired; 

Who like the Nomad and the Eremite, 

Sought Allah in the desert, and whene'er 

His epilepsy seized him— Allah spake. 

— Th' invention of a Devil is the worst 

Of man's misfortunes, vastly : it has done 

More mischief, than, all poison, than the knives 

Of all assassins, joint ; it has dethroned 

Man's reason and a Goblin has installed 

As master of man's fates ; whose subtlety 

Premeditates disaster to his hopes. 

And with infernal gusto, thwarts his will. 

--Thus, the shrunk .soul of man, the Middle Age, 

Confronts with ghastly fear— inflames the Cross 

With a, Medusa as the twinkling star 

Of the pure Christ, set, in th' smouldering 

wrath 
Of the Latin Manes. Man, with wars to wage 
Against the offense of reason, silenced loss 
With th' solace of his fictions ; who, to war 
Ascribed all, war so failed of : plentiful, 
Of death, his ordnance, patented, in Heaven, 
Parked, on Christ's vantage, at all angles shot. 
—The Mi(Mle Age is, more, the corse of Jove, 
Or, Thor, dipt, in the Jordan, than a voice 



THE REVOIiT OF REASON". 81 

Harmless and sweet from Judah : what, a swing 
Of execution, in the headman's axe, 
Whet, by her murders ? and, while, tragical 
Behind the footlights, no such comedy 
Since, the frogs of Aristophanes. Juvenal 
Was born, too early to have served man, best ; 
Terrance and Plautus living, then, had found 
Such drastic incidents in papal Eome, 
As Canitolian Jove was guiltless of. 

Christ, an estraying Lamb 
Tethered in Latium, pining, bleating, sick 
For the hills of Jewry!— On the Middle Age, 
With guilty faith, in what? faU the ringing 

blows 
Of reason, resurrected : who had borne 
Th' impeaoliment, known, as faith, which, 

analysed. 
Partakes the same servility that blanched 
What feathers, blew to Jewry ?— Bravery 
Cast, but, a spar, across the boisterous ford, 
Yet, woman passed, a woman over it. 
Behind the amorous man. The Middle Age 
Juts, a black promontory, boldly out 
Into the stream of thought and sinks more ships 
Than, all the reefs and shoals, whose cruel fame 
Seamen would stoD their ears to : who will 

climb 
Yon Crag?— What Tar? and light the Devil's 

Head? 
—Faith, never, lit a candle, in her life, 
Unless, of sperm ; her forte, to quench all light, 
But, down a golden, pagan candlestick. 
The statues by the Forum of old Eome 
Stirred, quite, as much to the eye of Cicero, 
With th' pulses of true manhood, as did man 
Under the reign of Faith; as man had, yet. 
If, still, a reign of Faith, were possible. 
Faith, had she held her sway, man had no light. 
But, from her altars ; his imnoverished mills, 
To industry, were hushed, save the sad looms 
Weaving her vestments. 
—What kent the Ages dark so much as faith. 
Ignoring Imman reason? Manhood fell. 
With man's remove from courasre : crime slipt in 
Between the ioints of the knight's harness 

since, 
Grace, by a priestly hand, could purge its guilt 
Honor, there was, if, in the stoutest lauce. 
An episode of love, the Middle Age, 



82 ' A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Penned of the Kniglit and Virgin, in the oatli 

Hissed— Bj^ Our Lady! 

—In Charlemagne, whose empire ceased with him, 

The West had found a master, yet, a friend, 

To letters, culture, e'en to hberty, 

Frisking within a tether, tho' of steel. 

An epoch, in a monarch, Time enjo^^s 

His leisure, oft, in wholesome argument, 

Touching the secret springs of history. 

In Charles, the Great, who cleft the sky of 

Faith 
With, now and then, a flash of light, itself ; 
Yet, superstition gave to it the hues 
Of burning brimstone. 

—Ah ! the long Middle Age that slept much less, 
Than, it dreamt evil and, at intervals, 
Swore godly oaths, by pious lances, dipt 
In ih' blood of dragons, while in trailing robes, 
Bespangled so, with sanctity, they gave 
Off, healing, as did Jesus. How, the air 
Must have opprest man's reason, if, indeed. 
He had conceived of cogito— unless, 
To Schoolmen's hairs, or grave philosophy 
Transmuting the base metals into gold ? 
—Peter, the Hermit, in a lunatic. 
Infected Europe with fanaticism. 
As, if, a plagvo had swept Jier, in her sons. 
From th' Alps to Syria, pale, in death— for 

what ? 
For th' rescue of, if rescued, but a tomb, 
Empty, of what was worthy and defiled 
By the blood that had recovered it— alas ! 
For human nature, wrenched : insanity 
In its worst type, lies, in religious zeal, 
For ends, below man's reason. 
—How, superstition jested and, oft, reeled 
O'er the easv conauest of the Gate of Heaven, 
When man believed successfully and died— 
Living or dying, his, a hope of heaven. 
Perched, on the helmet, of the murderous 

knight, 
Seen, as a halo, round the bandit's gold. 
When dumpt in pious vaults. 

Hiccups, in the wine. 
Of bibulous monks, of reverence, supreme. 
Hailed divine utterance, hath audience lost. 
Much, like som(^ monster, oft, affrighting ships 
No sea-glass takes clear note of, armed witli 

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ITHE REVOLT OF REASON. 83 

Darted, at Europe, yet, with gracious tail. 
Dousing with saving water, Europe's fears; 
With, half, her cargo, sunk, and half, afloat, 
For further aci tics— thus the papal \y(rld 
Told beads, an hour, and caballed, twenty-three 
—We learn more from Pompeii, than from Eome 
Of what, Eome was and hence, Vesuvius 
Is Eome's historian— while, her vomit, half, 
Atones, in Pope and Vandal, Goth and Hun, 
For hearthstones, shattered, in the Tiber, cast; 
For Gods, as. Art conceived them, Gothic saints. 
Eome never soared too high, not to descend 
Always in the Campagna : liberty 
In the first eagle's wing, met in mid-sty 
Had sent her,skurrying down,the despised fowl, 
Of all the game of heaven. 

No malediction, ever, fell from God; 

A curse, from God, ere lit, had God dethroned. 

Tho' man, affecting curses holds his throne, 

Tdl man unseats him : in the curse of God, 

The invention of the priesthood, to the wall, 

Pushed, for more whipcord. 

—Heretics may have been who died thro' fear 

Of Faith's anathema, ere, it had fall'n ; 

Yet, more, elected, to die afterwards : 

Imagination is the knife, whose steel, 

Moral assassins bring to th' finest edge. 

Of all Faith's enemies, no head turned white, 

But to her tortures— and pray, where, the 

knave, 
Had not hewn dungeons, in the solid rock? 

Why, still, some version of th' Archaic myth, 
Of an arch devil, rotund a baffled God, 
Fomenting mischief— vital ?— AMiat a day 
Shall that be in man's annals, when his brain 
Hath no more maggots in it ?— so, of faith, 
That of th' imagination, oft, wins fame. 
Thro' pobtquam ergo posthac ; dwarfing those, 
Of fabulous ages, daily— miracles. 
By her ascetics, pastime : what a stride 
Of reason, man, a godlike infidel, 
Unfaithful, to the past, yet, true to God ? 
Lot's stay the headlong current of man's gold 
His fears have made an Oronoco of, 
Thfit, hell-ward sets, to quench otemal fire. 
Ablaze in human fancy, elsewhere, not; 
Let's turn the current backward and remint 



84 ''A MAMMA1^ OITT'To 

This gold, purloined from purges^ crewhile 

turned. 
[To superstition. 

—II, there be, yet, a cat-o'-nine-tails, man's, 
"lis for his back who teaches men to heed 
His power, to curse or bless. God had made 

clear 
As, by a sunbeam, that, for wliich. He would 
Men should have reverence : Nothing else, par- 
takes 
Of doubt so vastly, in man's history. 
As, doth religion— which assumes, to be 
Man's most stupendous interest, yet, proves, 
His most prodigious folly. 

—To lapse of time, no falsehood becomes true 
Tho' reverenced daily for ten thousand years, 
By acts of homage, worship, zeal and faith. 
No merit lies in what men mav believe. 
But, in what is and, ever, must be, true. 
Earely a lie but contradicts itself ; 
While, half the mischief, of a lie, T>roceeds 
From th' marches it has stolen on the truth ; 
The other half, the cost, of the alkali. 
With which, to scour its trail. 
—Semitic vanity imprisoned God 
In Ark and Covenant : while the Western Mind 
Has halted life an era, by the streams 
That water sacred Canaan, dreaming o'er, 
Each mystic utterance of bard or sage ; 
Dwarfing man's reason, notably— since, man 
Shall not find God behind, but, in the fore ; 
Or, fail to find Him.' Yet when Christendom, 
In Theodosius, put a helmet on. 
The West believed, to spears. 
—By the Internum Mare, vigorous swarms, 
From orient hives alight, and industry 
There, plied her arts, while, seamanship set out 
To scour the coast for gain— th' Olympian Gods, 
Hushing the waves to peace, till Pan's last 

wail 
Died out in echoes on its classic shores. 
From Salem's heights, where, erst, had gleamed 

the gods 
Of cultured tribes, the Son of Jesse flung 
The banner of the God of Israel, 
Dripping, with th' blood of all the Jebusites ; 
A city, thence, the pride of Judah's God, 
His Temple and his Altar, there, alone : 
Where, to tradition— later, in his Son, 
The very God enacts a tragedy. 



THE REVOLT OF JREASON". 85 

Vou^lied for, of Jewish pens, of these, alone. 

Why, marvel, Europe snuft, in every gale. 

That swept th' Internum Mare, westwardly, 

Hebraic fancies ? Stemming every wave 

Some sea-craft, with the ensign of the Cross, 

What marvel, hers the cult of Israel— 

Hers, decimation, faith, therein, withheld? 

Anon, a ciescent moon rose in the East, 

In Allah's name, with menace, in its rays 

Of universal sway, when, at its full. 

Then, Cross and Crescent, fought their quarre 

out. 
In Christian blood and Moslem : Europe, thence 
Garlands the Cross with mistletoe and bade 
Both, Jove and Thor, farewell— yet, in he 

heart. 
Cherished, by other rites, reveres them, stiU. 
-How Christ had shuddered, had he dreampt 

the Church, 
An organ of the priesthood should ensue 
His words, in Galilee? Or, that his fame 
As of a lowly peasant should be wrapt 
Eound Capitolian Jove— of whom, 'tis like 
His ears had heard not, used, to homebred tales 
Or, that, in Italy, the Eoman spear, 
Dead, should enthrone him, in a Pontifex, 
Successor, to a Caesar ? 

Conceive God, as a person, who would make 

Much of this -trifling star—apprising man : 

Were he unbosomed, by the doubtful lips 

Of men's traditions ? or, by oracles, 

Historically, man's, as Delphi's own? 

God cannot be the close, familiar friend 

Of shrewd Italian monks— yet, reticent, 

To men, in cleanly homespun. 

-For policy and shrewdness, consummate, 

A Gregory ; and that the papacy 

Survives, a Gregory : a pope, himself, 

Is but, the force and culture of the man, 

Whose genius, e'en a fish-horn had announced, 

All, supernatural, in Peter's chair : 

In feuj>ernatural powers, the leathern fudge. 

By which, Eome clomb to Caesar. Tho' the 

zeal. 
That boasts of proselytes is, oft, content. 
To fe'^d on barley cakes ; th' anointed few, 
Styled Princes of the Church, what luxury 
These wights do wallow in, with what re- 
proach, 



86 A MAMMAL ONtt. 

For Christ, who had not, where, to la3^ his head ? 
Christianity, before the Church, was Christ; 
Christianity, the Church, hall fabulous : 
Eome, as the weathercof^l^, of Christendom, 
Of Jesuit oil, sensitive, to all winds. 
—St. Fetor's stands on broad indulgences, 
Tho' th' dome of Angelo is innocent 
Of the transgressions, that erected it ; 
Art unapproachable, as, if, the gold 
That made it, possible, had not bp^cn smeared 
With lechery or blood. A Temple, then, 
Is God's own house, if, craftsmanship alone, 
Vouches its fitness ? Eather, the broad sides 
Beneath whose dome, there is not. never was, 
To life, in this, or any other sphere, 
A hint of crime, condoned, lest crime had 

thriven, 
But, rigorous justice, flashing, from each breach 
Of natural law, in silence, ominous : 
J God's house, wherein, there were not found, 

a spall, 
iWith a blood-stain on it.-Fear of God, itself. 
Is fear of man's traditions of a God 
,f^rom papyrus to parchment— and since th<^n, 
Men fail to settle, clearly, what is God ? 
— Th© question, whence, is evil, is man's own. 
Goo , no concern therewith : evil is not 
Ass imed, a factor but false quantity. 
To waning brimstone. Disinfect the mind, • 
Of th* plague, within her hull, whose cancerous 

sores 
Disfigired all man's thought : not, yet a pain, 
But, in the breach of law, or pleasure, man's, 
But, to obedience. 

—Who hath the courage to avow that, true. 
All men', in concert, damn ? Less, what men 

Than, wiiat, men think they know, yet, do not 

know, 
Plays havoc with them. 
—Slip all the pack of hell on him, who dare 
Be true, to human nature and avow 
The truth, for truth's sake ; here is not the 

place. 
For truth, to be outspoken.- Yet, opinion 

fewings 
Between the poles of blind, submissive faith, 
And proof, as positive as gravity. 
Opinions change and men are clianged thereby. 
With their late selves, at startling angles,stood, 



THE REVOLT OP REASON. 87 

Who neither shrink, nor shudder— scarce sur- 
prised. 
No knowledge, like more knowledge; so no 

power, 
Like, power, enough, to humble power, itself. 
Thine is tiie privilege, or, to dispute 
What stands on affirmation, or sustain 
What men have negatived : authority 
The better reason, always. 

—Who cherish their delusions, in that, sweet, 
Are like the aged, who in childhood's toys. 
Would feel, anew, the exctuisite delight. 
Of childhood felt, alone. That penitence, 
The sea is hoarding salt for, that, men's eyes. 
May do their duty, nobly, some day, hence. 
Suggests the crime of overmuch belief. 
It costs too much to keep old myths alive : 
They eat the very bread, that mothers sigh 
To feed their babes with : nor is corn, to-day, 
As cheap as to a Eoman Emperor, 
Who, by his largess, made the yoke of Eome 
Sit lightly on men's shoulders: festival 
And circus, free, to Eomans. Nor, are men 
Bred, but, to fight tor Eome and be amused. 
In th' intervals of war : all men appear 
Claimants, for equal honors ; which are theirs 
Far as uneaual brains permit thereof. 
—The Aece wants heroes and wants cowards, 

shot. 
Half hero and half coward were a mark 
For f usileers to blaze at : heroism 
In war, or peace, half-hearted, but confest 
Cowardice wrapt in a field-marshal's cloak. 
Let us breed men. against all odds brave men, 
Who take their ground and hold it. despite 

arms, 
Gold, favor, even, life: improvement, man's 
Dates, from the breaches, made, by catapults. 
E'en, heroes' brains, in the tough masonry 
Of reverent custom. 
—The supernatural survives her time : 
She, with the Middle Age. had closed her course, 
INIore fittingly, than, by a lingering death. 
The dreary dogmas of the Middle Age 
Survive as problems, but, of policy. 
The pessimistic East has made the thought 
Of the world, hideous : true, to man, the West, 
False, to his creeds, which, of sheer policy. 
She coddles, entertains, or tolerates. 
Against the supernatural, the bolts 



88 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Of reason are directed and ere long. 

Gunpowder may sustain an ordinance. 

Denouncing within Christendom, assent 

To th' evil, longer. 

— 'Twas Phidias, tlie Greeks adored, in Zeus, 

Yet, him they dungeoned, lor impiety. 

If, to consistency appeal be made 

To save man's sanity, his cause were lost. 

As hopelessly, as any inmate's were. 

Of any Bedlam : reason hath the keys 

Of Faith's own dungeon, on the turpitude 

That built the dungeon, turned. 

The Western Mind awoke, refreshed, by sleep. 
Chagrined, her nap so lon^ : the printing-press 
Ee-publishi^d Greek and Eoman, polyglot; 
While, the West marvelled, how, men thought 

and why. 
And probed the secret, having thought, herself. 
To emulation. Freedom, thus, had come, 
Tho', in a goddess, not, a luminous fact. 
Till courage supplemented art, with arms. 
Both, in the flash of true Toledo steel. 
And in the nerve to draw it, liberty. 
When, man learned, what it meant and har- 
bored it. 
Thence, on th' alert, to mount each circum- 
stance. 
Plying the rowels, freely. Ah ! the privilege 
Of thinking, for himself— what oracle 
Has man found, like it?— Man, too, with the 

power 
So, to surpass himself, he had, to-day. 
On his best boast of yesterday, the laugh ; 
Whom, naught concludes, unless the Infinite. 
TTiought, when, phenomenal is dynamite, 
Nor, could it prove a harmless fulminate : 
Yet, revolution in belief imports 
No bloodshed, but, of knaves and the raised axe 
Gleams for such wretches' necks— it, always 

.lust, 
That such as will not, well contain themselves, 
Should contain bullets, since there's lead 

enough. 
For all who crave it.— If, for centuries. 
Men did not change belief— theirs, none, t 

change ; 
Who bled, but, to the banners, whereto, bred 
Opinion, yet, unborn : religion spake. 
By oracles unauestioned, and the State, 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 89 

By arms, decisive. 

—What crime so black as man's credulity ? 

Belief, without confronting evidence, 

First, made man infantile, and keeps him so. 

The East reflects the Bible as it is: 

The West, man's genius, in despite of it. 

Freedom is, never, lignt, from Syria. 

Not, to the Hebrew Scriptures, nor, to th' fact, 

Their leaves i3lew open, freedom : liberty 

Had made a freeman, ere she made a Huss ; 

Eoaring in Luther, as a hurricane, 

Sprung of a zephyr. Ere, his anger rose, 

Luther was, but, half, certain, he was free; 

Whose anger found his courage, waiting him. 

The manliness of Greek and Eoman souls, 

The fortitude of true .philosophy. 

Printing had filled the air with, the West 

^ breathed. 
As, chivalry, with feudal arms, went down. 
Freedom is not Semitic, thraldom is, 
Whose irons find the marrow of the bones : 
Not, in the East wind, freedom, but, the plague. 
Science stood up, despite authority, 
To argue the earth's motion, to descry 
Stars and explore them— e'en the Stagirite, 
To have dumbfounded with his Dremises. 
Authority ?— in God's name, what were that. 
Unless, O God, thyself? 
—Christianity hath not made Christendom : 
Throned, by her arms, her arms, it still, 

retains 
Whose menace hushed each wliisner of debate, 
Christendom, then, perhaps, Christianity : 
But, to men's lins, unsealed— Christendom thence 
The product, of the genius of the West. 
Freedom is, always, reason, at a stage. 
She dare assert herself and wit]j a spear. 
Or, shield, conclude her argument : her light 
Such as endues man, with new faculties, 
Or, doth so stretch the attributes, he hath, 
Ho seems, re-functioned. Always, bravery 
Presumes such sentiments of manliness. 
As, arguing honor, with a schoolman's art. 
Had stirred a s:ladiator's liver ut>. 
Man has had liberty two hundred years 
To breathe aloud— the earth rolls round the sun ; 
Such-, a stupendous privilege is man's. 
One other right, let faith concede- to probe 
Her own foundations : liberty of thought. 
To theocreatic Europe, dealt her. blows. 



90 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

That more restored her brains, than scattered 

them. 
Freed from his chains, man turned upon hirhsell 
And his own thoughts devoured for aliment ; 
Thence, freedom and true culture ; wherein 

power, 
The Eenaissance was. but, man's right to think 
E'en each man, for himself— hurling at Eome, 
Her boast, to think for th' A2:es : it was not 
For th' privilege to think with Israel : 
For th' right to hear him and think wiselie" 
By thirty centuries. 

—Truth, seldom, is, half, radical, enough, 
Unless, a plowshare : reason shall not cease 
Propounding questions, or resolving them, 
Till with a tidal wave, or glacial frost, 
Met, as forecasted, in her almanac : 
Since, Nature hints, she may inaugurate 
A reign of frost and bid man caulk his doors. 

— Eeason holds 
Events if, evil, are mistakes, her own, 
Or follies and repents them— on th' alert, 
For broader knowledge : she most confident, 
Herself and Nature are, at amity ; 
So, cx)nstant, their relations— so secure. 
In her position, life is tentative. 
Confusion proves not Providence, but man's 
Raw manhood, in the offices of man : 
Life's touching, at the port, she should have 

made, 
Five thousand years ago. 
—Man blushes for his clumsy vehicle, . 
With the paga,n gods carved on it, with much ■ 

gilt. 
Much fluted ivory, spread over it: 
Savage, barbaric, classic, with a lamp, 
Swung, at the axle, by whose fitful gleam. 
The wain goes, jolting on. All freedom, man's, 
Is measured, by the distance, overcome. 
From sacerdotal chains— freedom as dead. 
As, the God, Apis, in the atmosphere. 
Of superstition : Light, and of man's brain, 
Is like the handful of avenging dust, 
By the last Gracchi, falling, cast at Heaven, 
The Furies honored. 
—Accentuate the present and forbid 
Unfounded expectations ; man is what 
The instant makes him : man is but a fact, 
To his surroundings, which, his iiitellect 
Proceeds to master, or, to, gently, serve; 




ilAfcii&ii" 



THE REVOIiT OF REASON. 91 

Whose future holds the clew of destiny, 

Men strive to snatch at; whose felonious past 

But, pickt the lock of hope ; whose intellect 

May have as low and base an origin, 

As, in the muck-worm ; if philosophy 

Holds anything, in Nature, low, or. base. 

Instinct t' assume is far more violent. 

Than, to hail reason, common, to a scale. 

From insect, up to man. 

—Experience is the measure of all light ; 

Man's inexnerience, zero : but, one plea. 

Tradition urges, or tradition may— 

Thus, thought, our fathers, and thus we should 

think ; 
Tho' he shall yet have honor, who believes, 
Not, what his fathers did, but, what, they had 
Theirs as clear vision, as, their children have 
Tradition hath no rights, against the sun; 
The kid, that gambols with a lion, bleeds, 
A mounted god, let him assail the light, 
He were unhorsed, and quickly : So, to-day, 
Nothing is sacred from man's inquiry. 
But, that, beneath ft.— Superstition holds 
Firmly, the keys of destiny and man 
His reason, half, aroused, is craving— why ? 
A bankrupt, yet, in that, he, seldom, hath 
His assets, at command— li id, in the vault 
Of some basilica, the keys thereto, 
At some frockt warden's girdle : all his meat 
Exchanged, for lentils, or, a charlatan's 
Pledge of clean entrance into Heaven's strait 

gate. 
— Eurone has fondled dolls, a thousand years, 
Trickt out, in finery, in vogue, the day. 
She raked them from the ruins of old Rente ; 
Pagan, as Caesar's mother's, or her dame's. 
—Time is preparing to indulge a laugh. 
His waistband is so slack! 

To search for mystery deposits it. 

Where, none before existed : mystery 

Is, oft, a Dhantom of the intellect 

Man hath the knack, to raise, but, not to lay 

If, mystery were, simply, that, unknown 

What, else, in Nature, man's, but, mystery ? 

Motion, in Nature, is significant 

Of half her fu^nctions : such the mystery. 

In that, which seems the least mysterious. 

Science is more than man accords to her. 

As man's conception— she is Nature's own: 



92 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

All knowledge, man's invention, in the sense 
Of finding out, or, of discovery. 
Doubt, is the alphabet, by which, we learn, 
While, demonstration settles what, we know, 
Till, to more light, re-argued. 

n. 

Why should man's exit nrove more difficult. 
Than, his unconscious entrance into life ? 
To light a candle, or. to put it out ? 
Man lives, because he must, yet brandishes 
His knife, a suicide, because, he may. 
Eesearch dispels the notion, that man feels 
Immortal promptings, due to natural law: 
No word, in any savage dialect, 
Native, for yearnings after life, beyond. 
'Tis Nature's consolation, no man, dead, 
Is conscious he has left his palace, cot, 
Or, merchandise, or shop : the fact of death 
Eealized, by the living, not by th' dead. 
What more could Nature do, than, give man 

sleep, 
No dreams harass, no trumpet shall disturb, 
Life, nobly, spent, or ill ? No watchful eye 
Doth rescue from their indiscretions, men. 
They suffer, or fall, to them, death responds 
To vital mathematics ; no regard 
Had to expediency, in time, or place. 
No mystery, in death, like that of birth; 
The flame has, but, burnt out, j^et, how the 

flame 
Kindled, is, thrice, mysterious. 

—Man must be what he most appears to be, 

Mortal, as if a lichen, or, a fern ; 

Whose folly seems— to rate himself so high. 

He sets his idle heart on life, beyond, 

To the distraction, of his only life : 

Tho' not misled of Nature, or, of God. 

—There is no fear of death, net fear of man. 
Thro' man's inventions : heaven and hell are 

man's 
As, truly, as his murders : Nature shuts 
The door, on inauiry, beyond the grave ; 
Kindly, in her, to do so if man hath 
No fortunes, hence— and who had better known ? 
What is man's age is a momentous fact. 
Biology lights, dimly : proofs may sleep 
Beneath Atlantic and Pacific seas. 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 93 

Of what man has been— facts of yesterday 

Thebes and the rise of Illion : Nature's trend 

Seems toward a consummation, hers, wherein, 

Man is a factor, passive. 

—Man had clear right a century ago. 

But, to live o'er, what had been : to have 

thought 
Thein, as men, now, do, had been blasphemy. 
Treason, or, crime still fouler : blasphemy, 
A faded fiction— treason, blacker, still, 
To justice, on her throne, than, yesterday. 
—All crime is possible, to ignorance, 
Smithfields may, hence, transpire, should faith 

revive. 
In Christendom, the final Act of Faith 
Is, of the past, scarce, yet a hundred years ; 
When, by the Holy Office, men were burnt, 
For crime, impossible, styled heresy. 
Had God interpreted His will to men 
Of every Age, as if made audible, 
This had been Revelation— well observed, 
Therein, God's favor, His displeasure— spurned : 
But,' what Traditions of His will were true. 
Extra-judicial, proof of these, alike ? 
Against experience, hearsay, proof of what? 

—Physical courage has done more, for man. 
Than, half, his schools did, for him, ere, the 

day, 
Gunpowder, flashing, at the gleaming crest, 
Of the last knight, unhorsed him— for, it seems, 
Man had no rights, till courage proved he had. 
Eeligion, before science— afterwards. 
Science, and thence, religion, illustrates 
The law of progress, fitly. Feat, too hard, 
To argue man, to savagery and fly 
His annals from a tent-pole : argument 
Sides with mankind, in action, to achieve; 
Or, failing, man's extinction. 

—In a sphere, swept, of idols and false gods. 

Were ,a clean stage for man, whose, not a fear, 

But, lest, the prompter nod. Liberty 

Has doft her Eastern gear, disdaining sleep 

On orient rug, or divan, every pulse 

Languid, with frequent amours : watchfulness, 

Her spear and egis. 'Tis the bitterness, 

Evolved of man's traditions that defeats 

The unity of man and shall till time 

Hath burnt much faded papyrus, or shelved 

The mischief in it, high. 



94 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

—Opinion, tlio' not air observes the law. 
Of veering, oft, until it settles down, 
In a contented trade- wind. 

In morals, wherein friction, it is man's, 
Ever, to lack of knowledge : human life 
Ought to move, noiselessly, along its way, 
As, ride the spheres, e'en, with a glory, theirs ; 
Eclipses, transits, every incident 
In life's astronomy, as positive 
As th' mathematics, of the solar spheres. 
—Since, God is other than men deem He is, 
Ours, a new era— man in search of God. 
How shall man prosper till he feels his life 
Is mortgaged to no devil and his name 
Signs, with heroic flourish, to the deed 
Of his self-manumission ?— who well needs 
All th' sulphur feigned, in hell, to fumigate 
His noxious life with— who would make it o'er 
To the pattern of pure reason. Never, God 
Crarns a man's mouth with bread, nor, raven's 

crop ; 
Each heeds the law of life and to it, thrives. 
Or, to its rare exceptions, starves and dies. 
In th' ear of men's traditions, it sounds strange 
That, man's is moral providence, and God's 
Unmildewed corn, in autumn. 
—Voyaging the ecliptic, if the sun 
Had smote the zodiac, with pestilence, 
How, it had smirched his royalty, whose fame 
Ensues benignant swav ? 

Wise men rejoice, in wiser, than themselves, 

But, fools delight in their diminutives. 

He who had recognized a God, when met, 

Were, half, a God, himself ; it, ever true, 

He eulogizes Ms own powers, the best. 

Who finds another, greater, than, himself, 

And tells men, of him. 

—A special message, by an Eremite, 

Or, fasting Arab, from the Court of Heaven, 

To-day, were lunacy : God has not changed, 

But, man has changed his notions of a God. 

Tho only envoys, God's, from other spheres. 

As, yet, prove aerolites. 

—Men are not atheists who disbelieve 

In verbal revelation and maintain. 

Law, common, fixt, and irreversible. 

Appears the presence of a God— whereto, 

Man piay adjust his life and live, serene, 



THE REVOLT OF REASON". 95 

Such honor Him, too much, to entertain. 
Traditions, faith insists on— as, of God, 
Late, vext and wrangling, in the Orient', 
With favorites perverse. Were God to speak, 
'Twere by a protocol, cast down the sky, 
Witli th' flaming: seal of God on— every eye's 
For stricture and all Time's.— The priestly caste, 
To power invincible, leapt, at a bound, 
Power, to the credulous, it, yet, retains : 
Dismist, the priesthood, and all men were freed. 
Imagination is the arm, itself. 
Imagination nerved to snatch the world. 
Man, vested, in a devil, by a myth, 
Was not suggestiA^e to man, barbarous, 
Of a capacious gullet. What, unless 
Man's passions, that entice him ? Hence, to 

charge 
Temptation, on a devil, proves a man, 
The veriest, of all cowards, as of knaves. 
I did not do it, is the flimsy plea. 
Of the wretch, who dreads a drubbing, so well 

aired. 
In th' myth of Eden. It is time, indeed, 
Diabolism, maeric and the like 
Distempers of man's childhood were interred 
In one accursed grave. What, too, of creeds 
That, while, they differ, scarcely, but, in name. 
Vie, in ascetic rigor ?— Fast and feast 
If, to good men's rotundity, the cue, 
Bad men are lean, in that, no pious serfs 
Have rolled old wine, in puncheons, down their 

vaults. 

For that found clear, faith, seldom, is invoked : 

Faith is invoked to overmaster doubt ; 

Tho' doubt be man's own rescue, from himself. 

Faith, by whatever name, is, still, but, faith, 

In reason only. Demonstration wields 

The baton of all knowledge : constant proof 

Hath made the mathematics, of the sun. 

Acceptable, to reason— man had dropt 

His puissant triangle, long, ago. 

Met, with a fractional error, in the force 

That wheels the planets. 

—Who sees not, 
A somersault, impending, in belief. 
No gymnast's were a type of, from the first 
OljTnpiad, downward? How, to prove a God, 
Is, yet, a problem, how, to prove a man's 
Avatar is resolved— while, evidence. 



9^ A MAMMAIi OlTliir. 

Two thousand years, wherein, no hint, or sign 
Flashed down the spheres, that Christ, had, ever 

been, 
Sustains the manship, that precludes a God. 

—The age of knightly Arthur, subsequent, 
To the lirst, by many centuries, displays. 
On th' screen of man's credulity, enough, 
To teach men, how, to estimate the past. 
The nineteenth century, ,not to test the first, 
By its owTi rigorous reason, were to take 
A Gascon, at his word. 

—Chivalry, her blood. 
Shed, in tlie knight, of the tenth century, 
To no appearing God, while, half, her plumes 
Fell, to the Saracen : so, reason fails 
To entertain her dream, inspired, with hope 
That, culture, yet, may so refine mankind, 
Men, for the sake of righteousness, alone. 
May, e'en, do justly. 

—Not, what, men may believe, but, what, men 

must. 
Eeligion is the mischief man has done, 
Eeducing Nature, to his premises. 
Religion ? Will God whisper it, to man. 
Now, he is past the nomad ? It, so clear 
The Supernatural ha/S raised a doubt. 
No possible credence, man's, may overcome. 
Hebrew mythology is much, the same. 
As Greek, or Eoman— no wise, quite unlike. 
But, in their closing fortunes : e\'ery myth 
When, of Semitic origin, has had 
The rasp and varnish of the intellect 
Of th' Western Nations, to subdue each coarse 
Repulsive outline, in th' original. 
To cultured favor, after Greece and Rome's 
Were buried, with their Gods, in classic mould. 
The Jew penned history to charm the ear, 
As Mozart set a fugue. Be man's, for faith. 
The f act of supreme charity, and live 
And die, in the odor, of it. 

—Man implies thought, that prompts the word 

or blow. 
Had built life, higher, manlier, broader, yet 
Than its foundations : no such obstacle 
To manhood, as man's dread of growing wise. 
Lest, he supplant his follies : still, so sweet, 
His stomach sours, to wholesome diet, served 
With th' salt of lust experience. 



The revolt of reason. Q1 

— Tradition is not satisfied, to feed 
On her own poison ; she would have, not one, 
But, many corpses, and in every house, 
The stench therefrom, a problem national : 
Still, bidding man seek riddles in himself, 
Tho' Nature made man, but, an animal, 
Ambitious, for the sceptre of a sphere— 
Who needs but one salvation— righteousness 
In word and action and were, otherwise. 
In hell, already. 'Tis man's privilege 
To think and boldly— not, as if the right 
Were pilfered, as Prometheus stole the spark, 
But, a condition, laid on man to think 
Or waive a planet's mastership. Who knows 
What, man may stretch to, since, no man as yet 
Knows, from what point man started : history 
Appears a morbus, with a glacial chill 
And flushes of brief purpose : intellect 
Gravitates toward man's future, as t' a ship. 
In trim, en route, for possible continents, 
Think, for thyself, is the last Gospel, man's, 
And man accepts it.— Honesty, alone 
Is hero, in life's epic : strength to wait 
Transcends achievement. What the world ad- 
mires 
Is manhood, so pronounced, an infant's eye 
Eemarks th' exception : wherefore, honesty 
Hath honor, in the blow, had been a kiss, 
From hearts, perfidious. 
Who spared the house of Pindar, sacking 

Thebes, 
Bunt, in the act, a fitter monument, 
Than had Mt. Athos been constrained of Art 
To look, the Son of Philip : sentiment 
Outlives a mountain ; so, in space, transcends 
Its bulk, as vastly, as had all men's hearts, 
Touched into sympathy, the shrivelled soul 
Of one barbarian.— Thine, a Eoman urn 
Cato and Tully in it, room were left. 
For half their compeers' ashes— e'en so small 
The compass of dead gods, whose effluence 
Is the charmed atmosphere, breathed of us all. 
The languor in it, lusty. Life commends 
The good, the beautiful, the true, alike 
To thought, as qualities— of Plato, held. 
Ideas, fixt, eternal: when, in gods. 
Their foremost attributes. 
In the first person, singular, quote man 
Against a visible world : let tliat, unseen, 
Invite reflection, but, no argument 



98 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Eaise, toucliing primacy, in man, a fact, 
That pivots plain and mountain, to the sun, 
For his vivacious kiss ; man's, or no ear 
T' en;ioy the gracious smacl?: : lion and nard, 
Conscriptions levying, on a swarming sphere, 
Had fought their cycle out.— Still, equity 
Fights with the moth, to, yet, .preserve her 

furs, 
For State occasions ; while, man's liberty 
By w^ell-known thumb marks, found, upon her 

neck, 
Proves her assassin would be, could be, gold. 

Nature is so committed to fixt laws. 

Be there a Power above her, or, if, not, 

Is speculation for the curious. 

Nothing is more contemptible, than, man's 

Contempt, for Nature ; doing in God's name, 

For Nature, what, she doeth, in her own. 

—If, armed possession, half, the title, man's 
To this contested sphere— a unufruct, 
Despite himself concludes him : nains. to gild 
The fiction of our fathers— his, the soil. 
Usque ad coelum, to earth's central fires. 
Who hath paid money for it, clarifies 
A common usufruct, as the best boast, 
Man, ever. had. or. may have, to the earth ; 
Whose title to the enjoyment of the sphere, 
E'en, all thereof is indefeasible, 
Till vaster nonulations shall demand 
Concessions, to their needs : it, never, true 
That against Nature, is tlie soil, man's own ; 
Hers, a most clear, inviolable right. 
To breed, or, to forbear, as she elects— 
Tho', she had, still, sung lullabies, to men. 
If, hanging, from her dugs, when all were dry- 
While, eight parts, out of ten, of all the earth. 
Were, quite, unutilized— yet, waiting sweat 
Of hunger, promifted ; thus, to educate 
Man's genius thro' his stomach. 

—Labor is not th' advantage, gold exacts 
Of starved and wasting thews, as in a lad 
Apprenticed to a villain— is not sweat, 
Save, as gold, minted, to gold, ingoted. 
Weighed, sealed and safely vaulted : labor hath 
Th' election to die, rich, tho', ever poor 
To man's traditions ; hath the privilege, 
To be, wiiat Plutus is— with sleeves rolled down, 
Astride the bullion, she, but, lately, served. 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 90 

There is no God, but Labor, visible, 

Armed with a thunderbolt, since Jupiter. 

Meum and tuum, ever, must remain 

The buhvark ot the State, the last defense 

Of industry, herself, who had sat down 

Had wiped her dripping forehead, indolent 

As th' veriest vagabond, if, hers, no pledgie 

Of several gain, inviolably hers. 

—Labor is prayer, with her petition crowned 

Wliile, who would toil, yet, may not, the 

world's crib 
Is theirs, to feed from, to the equity 
Of broth ei hood, in sight, if, not, quite, here. 
Labor is not a question, tho' men make 
An issue of it : labor is a law. 
Pronounced as gravitation, and like it 
Admits of no proviso. Not, to toil 
Is no man's privilege : tho' every man 
May,frankly,ask— r< r what ?for why ?for whom ? 
Whose isinnews, as his own, he hath clear right 
To market, at fair value, or withhold, 
His wares, at his eie-.tion. Policy 
Is tainted meat that any vulture scents, 
But manliness and honor, what base bird 
Sniffs carrion, thence? 

But for man's sinews, gold had starved to death ; 
A chary dealer, guaging by the ell. 
Or to, the balaace, labor, when by sweat 
Thro" the earth's bounty huddled into bins, 
A value is created, in the power 
To challenge cold or hunger— in the means 
Of vantage, man's, thro' iron fuel steam, 
His arts ha'^'o educated to his needs; 
As in that force, whereof, as more is known 
Science with knottier problems is assailed ; 
Man's motor, candle, eye and ear and voice, 
With pledges waiting him in wonder-land 
By this so reticent force, incognito. 
Frisking thro' aU. the spheres.— Of brain and 

thews 
When these have wedded, in each drop of sweat 
An argument for ten, in cheery homes, 
To hands resourceful, twenty roods in one. 
— 'Tis not so much in teaching labor how. 
As teaching labor why— the reins cast free 
On the arched neck of common industry. 
Less when to sweat, than a fair open field : 
Tho' prizes may be snatched of snail-paced men 
Against athletes who tarry in their cups. 
The odds are sweepstakes' to persistent thrift. 



100 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Toil may not squint toward the pyramids, 
T' remark the wortJh. of labor— at h^r feet 
Stretches bread-bearing soil; as right and left 
Koll populous seas ; whose never-finished 

Towns 
Inscribe utility, on Western skies, 
As, if, the Sun's vocation had been found 
When, near his setting, in his rising, lost. 
—The sanctity of labor is, in 'thrall. 
To pagan rites, while the beseeching soil 
Waits homage, in man's sweat. Tho' savagery 
Supremely happy, in the chase or war, 
Finds life a pastime— indolence, a law 
Bears but the fruits of indolence, in fits, 
Of uncongenial thrift. 

—To seize a /sphere and teach it, how to swing, 
Is man's vocation— tho' the privilege, 
To argue bread on every river's bank. 
Nature contends, were kindlier, tiian to drop 
Bread from her tree-tops, daily in his lap, 
Who made the sloth to teach him how to run, 
And proves her own a doting mother's heart, 
To have enthroned him. 

—Man wants men, 
More men, and better bred, to thine and mine. 
To courage, manliness ; to all the arts ^ 

Of strength, of power, of comity— wherein, 
Man's needs are common :— man's but to sub- 
sist. 
At animality, a pause were hiade 
Wliile, each remove from bestial selfishness, 
With each advance, beyond the emmet, his 
Insensibly, had been, to hunger, lost. 

—No fear, whatever, for the weal of man 
Urging his way, to freedom of the mind : 
Nor, for the garnered fruits of common toil : 
Time, fully, ri,pe, for changes, radical, 
Had caught no \shriek of danger, in the air. 
Argued and, oft, re-argued, it remains 
Unsettled, what, beyond protecting it, 
The posture, of the State, toward common toil 
Starvation argues, with sepulchral voice. 
The wrongs, alleged of sweat, from capital, 
To Socialism, pointing— that, the bins 
Of Rome, may be replenished, or, that toil 
May have a common fatherhood. A fact^ 
Labor is, older, than the pyramids ; 
A problem, recent, as man's liberties; 
Its true relations, as, yet, tentative; 



THE REVOLT OP REASON. l6l 

Th' experiment, proceeding, day by day. 
How, each mav take the profits of his sweat, . 
Beyond lust payment for the handkerchief, 
With which, he mops it. 
—Next, to the question, of one life, or two. 
Which, late, absorbs men, is that stirring one 
Wliat rights hath labor, which, has, just, been 

put 
To th' current Ages. It seems all, of life, 
To have well spent it, to have made the most 
Of brevity, by crowding, well, therein. 
The best results of all experience— 
Wliile, Labor seems the sun, round which re- 
volves 
The social system. Man. merged, in the State 
Was but the ward of government, that nursed 
His thews for war, at its convenience. 
But, man, a unit, may demand, how far. 
When, capital and labor are, at odds. 
The State should intervene. Should riches grow 
In private life colossal, at the cost 
Of failing bread to -hapless multitudes. 
Till Freedom, as a fact, fall, odious, 
Before the brisk assaults of private gold, 
Its name, but left, a vulgar talisman. 
Wherewith to coniure common suftrage, stiU ; 
Ere such event, 'twere fit, or, then too late, 
To vest the State with powers to fix, on sweat 
Its current value and to supervise 
And promptly pay it, wages, with a view 
Less to enrich the State, than serve it, best. 
As, the employer of its unemployed. 
Th' electric fluid, steam and iron prove 
The masters of the State— gold, secondly. 
As th' oil and fuel, to their energies ; 
WTiile, peace and war insist, that the State 

maintain 
Its clutch on each, lest, it some morning, wake. 
An oligarchy. 

—No sunshine, like an ever-joyous face: 
It, even, makes the leathern cheeks of care 
Dimple, to its contagion. Happiness, 
Is where men make it; seldom, where, 'tis 

sought : 
'Tis that, good fortune, may not, oft, bestow, 
'Tis that, good fortune, gone, his, left behind 
If, he would but perceiA-e it, who, when lost 
Berates his stars and dies. Suicide, to-day. 
Is not a fine art, a surrender, clean. 
To vanished hope, he seeks to ^andicate, 



i02 A MAMMAIi ONLY. 

As, manly, in himself, whose, k^ce raised port 

Droops to misfortune. 

—Seize Labor's hand and shake it— kiss the 

cheeks 
Of all her ruddy babes; let capital 
Find that home, sweet, whence, his : a common 

aim. 
Esteem and mutual had done more, for toU, 
E'en, more, for capital, than policy 
That slights the social instinct '{lud with e.old 
Pays labor off, with supercilious smile. 
What, too, when labor shall participate, 
Most fitly, in the gains of capital ? 
Labor hath good digestion with sound sleep : 
Hers, such an edge to hunger, breaking fast 
Is a deUght— the languid, sickly heir 
Of ease and indolence, had emptied, half, 
His coffers, to partake, and then to sleep 
And wake, refreshed— what Heaven, to health, 

alone ? 
Sleep payp the highest wages, paid, to sweat. 
Pays them, most promptly : Sleep, O blessed 

sleen. 
When, likest death thou hast the nearer, 

Heaven, 
Him, who awakens, to the Morniflg Star. 

The rights of man, no Magna Charta yet 

Hath, half, asserted : Man hath rights t' enjoy 

Some future day he may not yet conceive, 

Nor, of the fitness, that shall summon them 

Into existence : life and liberty 

Are, still, but terms, with meaning half obscure 

HoweA^er, patent, they appear to such. 

As Sv-'ek no meaning, deeper, than the skin. 

The rights of many are superior 

To desolating selfishness, iu one, 

The right of many, otherwise, denied. 

Diligence is entitled to her own, 

But, craft and cunning find, defeasible, 

Whatever title, theirs. 

—Who rendered verdicts man may not reverse, 

Facts, found fallaoious, they are founded on ? 

Wlio hath so settled the estate of main 

Wliat, vital, none may argue ? Wlio shall set 

AutJiority against the brain of man. 

Unless authority o'ermaster it ? 

Men know a glow-worm from trim Jupiter. 

To living men, what fact, but, death, itself, 

Not, subject to repeal, re-argument, 



THE REVOLT OF HEASOX. 103 

Revision, or rebulre? 
—There seems no stage of culture wlierein, men 
Do, as they would— the nearer savagery 
The less election, man's bound, hand and foot, 
By his traditions : these, his rule of life 
Inviolable.— All morality 
Seems, but, the twin of culture and is less 
Ideal than, of custom, a fixt code, 
Contemporaneous social life observes. 
There is no conscience, false— such, none, at all 
Nor, one divine; nor, yet, intuitive, 
A key, to ethics : so, all wickedness. 
Is what, the customs, cf a tribe forbid. 
Or, what, each stage of higher culture, may. 
If, in themselves, distinctions absolute. 
Evil and good, abstractions had been, yet. 
But, for the customs, whereto, men are bred. 
Of right and wrong, man's standard is his own. 

—So, a bandit may be manlier than a thief ; 
Since, crime hath manliness enough, therein, 
To warrant sharp distinctions : noble, he 
Who seeks thee, an assassin, yet proceeds 
To arm thee, like himself— in valor's hands 
The doubtful issue : base, with cautious tread 
Who stabs thee in thy sleep to snatch thy purse 

Man has no fixt and changeless destiny ; 

Life heeds the intimations of his will 

And changes with it : time were just to man 

Should Justice cast her scales into the sea, 

Dismiss her lictors and wind up her moot,. 

With maledictions on all righteousness. 

Less light streams from the torch, a wise man's 

own. 
Than, from some fitful taper, he may trim. 
Carrara's marble waits an Angelo ; 
Tho' marble may not sigh for Phidias, 
Still, Time may wake EndjTnion, unaware. 
Man scores no progress, in pursuit of God, 
When he assumes each fact, he seeks to find, 
Who doth not need a creed as much as light 
To seek a creed with, yet in search of one: 
For th' time is come, when Light dethrones a 

God, 
Unless it be the God of Light, himself : 
To veneration, any stone, a God. 

—I do not know, is father to, I know : 

I know, aborteth knowledge— half, the art 

Of teaching man, is learning, what he knows, 



104 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Imagination, stUl, writes history, 

As, S'lie, ever wrote it, with an iron pen, 

Dipt, in the Iris. 

That, vital, of all problems, men's, is how 

To make the most ol' life and gently die, 

Unresurrected : thus longevity. 

May prove a question, graver than was sin, 

That tortured man for sixty centuries. 

Cost, what it may— man seeks to learn the 

truth 
And cease his errors, gladly : so, wherein, 
Man is himself, the subject of the probe. 
What glory, his, who speeds the eager knife ? 
The highest wisdom, man's, proves common 

sen se, 
Wlien, apprehended ; so profoundest truth 
Takes refuge, in the hornbook, having run 
The gauntlet of men's jeers. Strange, altlio' 

true 
Man hath not, yet, the privilege of thought 
But, to the censorship of penal laws— 
As, if, thought had done all, that thought may 

do; 
Man's, but, to rock his faculties, asleep. 
And genuflect, profoundly, to the past. 
Facing the future, backward. 

The fact that men believe a Devil is, 
Achieves the mischief, that a devil had 
Were he, a person, and hath travestied 
The whole economy of life, itself. 
An evil spirit, postulated, man 
Dances, a frantic devil, soon, himself. 
To Fancy, fiddler— witli his sensitive nerves. 
Her royal catgut.— Tho' to science, man 
Seems an illustrious toy, of Nature, made. 
Fondled, awhile, who with its atoms seeks 
Amusement, in new ventures— man, himself, 
Devoted to the toil of head and heart 
Is, thereby, sacred.— To invent a world 
Peopled with spirits, pestilent and just. 
Eternal feud, between thorn, was a feat 
Fancy was equal to— which, reason seeks 
To contravene and flatly : privilege, 
To have learned, how, with courage, to do right. 
Is finding favor. Eeason would re write 
The Vedas, Shastres, Gospels of mankind. 
In her charmed ink, that hath no element 
Of wonder, in it. 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 105 

—There's not a grain of merit, in belief, 

However, sanguine : who believes a lie, 

Yea, bleeds for it, cloth himself twofold wrong. 

Martyrdom argues, but, how frail man is 

And, ill, concludes its argument, for faith, 

By its false system of phlebotomy. 

Faith, in that, true, were, scarcely served by 

blood, 
Unless, faith, in a monster, to whose nose 
The scent of blood were sweet. 'Tis rational, 
Faith, if, not logical, is obsolete : 
Faith is th' assent of reason to clear proof ; 
Heresy, his infirmity, who, yet, 
Bleeds, to the supernatural, or, would. 
If, late, the fashion, to seek pleas, for acts, 
Eeputed God's— it is, the vogue, to-day. 
All props, withdrawn, t' remark th' conse- 
quence : 
Had ill befallen that, indeed, God's own ? 
Wliat, in its stead, 'tis argued, as, if man 
Must have another error, were one, lost. 
O'erthrow the error and make inquest, thence, 
For the truth, men could not, while the error 

stood : 
Error is, always, quite, infallible? 
To any change, of sheer necessity^ 
Fpllen, forever. 

—Faith is p. T^opPibil-'+y of birth. 
Its quality, an accident, of where, 
Its worth, the custom of one's ancestors. 
Faith is oppression, in the shameful act 
Of clinching irons on his wrist, with hand 
Outstretched, to take her sop : 'Tis in the air, 
That, reason, tho', no God, resembles one. 
Faith, almost, bloodless, in the classic age ; 
Ascetic faith, the preface and the close, 
Of medieval madness, throve, on blood. 

Theology, at bay, well nigh concedes 
God, thro' his reason, only, treats with man ; 
Thus, dissipating formulas of faith, 
Derived from words, wherein, exclusively, 
It, late, sought revelation— igjnorance 
Whereof, had left man, unrecovered, lost. 
Until his faith embraced them. What is this 
But, the "onfession, that a book from God 
To be accepted, unon faith, alone, 
Were, quite, uncalled-for? reason hath no need 
Of a bard's fancy, to make up her mind, 
On life and death, qu God and providence. 



106 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Man's vital issues : every sacred book 
Foreclosing knowledge, thro' its boast alone, 
To have exhausted knowledge. Man stood 

still, 
By the North Sea, the Danube and the Ehine, 
Chained, like the Asiatic, but, for faith, 
In reason, only. 

—Man's own improvidence has never had 
A Providence, to succor it, in men. 
Who to test poison take a dose thereof. 
Nature's to him, a special providence 
Who, snugly, sidles up, between her knees : 
Since, th' supervision of a personal God 
Could, ill, consist with famine, fire and flood. 
God, within Nature, or, outside, of her. 
Personal, or impersonal, but facts, 
Meaningless God-ward : God, no more, a God, 
Sceptered and sitting an immaculate throne 
Than, immanent, in Nature; to men's prayers 
Just, as accessible. 

—Man formulated life, to dogmas his, 
Ere, science split a sunbeam : when the eartn 
Seemed, as the vestibule to man's estate, 
His fortunes, behind doors, of burnished gold 
That swang, at death, to rapturous music, wide 
The moral evil of this wicked world. 
Demands no fable to account for it, 
As, far, as it coneeras man, 'tis his own. 
The purpose of this life is what appears 
Its purpose, on the surface— why, elsewliere, 
As down the depths of an unsounded sea 
Should men, still seek it? 

Man's culture, with no cue from the Orient, 

Is the experiment of Liberty, 

Made to conditioas, positively, man's: 

While, men and women, joined, in wedlock true 

Man's morals, purer, thro' his privilege 

To make more odious, to more honor, vice, 

Has made of life, a garden of sweet herbs. 

This is no sin-curst, but, a sun-blest sphere 

Tho', scarcely maa's, five centuries, wherein, 

Fable is not the warp of history 

Done, with the fictions of a fabulous past, 

Man shall have honor, mortal and enough. 

That, clearly rubbish, why not brand it such. 

With label, rubbish in all languages ? 

Man seeks re-education, to the fact, 

There is no Devil chafing, yet, his heels, 

Pe hopes to distance ; nor within his breast, 



THE REVOLT OF REASON, 107 

Gliding to ensnare him— which infernal myth 
Has done man infinite wrong. 
—Granting a Devil, whence, had he a soul, 
To torture in his brimstone ? Shades appear 
Poetic license to eke out the m.vth, 
Of the sldpper Charon and his crazy boat. 
The flesh of Plato, and of Plato's dog 
'Have common prospect of a life, to come : 
A resurrection, to man's intellect. 
Presents no problem, in an idle dream 
Of callow fancy. 

—His search, for final causes, is the rock 
Whereon, man has made shipwreck and must yet 
Till quite contented with phenomena. 
He, w^ell, concludes— Nature was never, not, 
While, his own fortunes ride too near the ground 
To argue eagle's wings.— Time, hence, must grow 
Wiser and wiser, still : if, time do not. 
Time were man's enemy. Death consummates 
Man's purpose, to fond tears, and buries him : 
Man, in tlio race immortal— for who knows 
There is a spirit in the universe? 
Truth must be w^elcome tho' she prove a torch 
That lights man to the grave and leaves him 

there, 
In dreamless sleep, him, happy, thence, for aye. 
Death was, to fable, man's arch enemy : 
Death is, to reasoja, but, the curtain, dropt, 
On life's brief drama. Death is negative, 
A self-commissioned executioner. 
To savage eras, by his fleshless ribs. 
Still, startling fancy.— Not a mortal dies, 
Unw^illing to die, then, at Natur?s's nod. 
She having whispered— peace. Write, kindly 

death 
Against man's known mortality and writ, 
Lay down the quill, as Nature breathes, Good 

night. 
—Man is a series of phenomena. 
Due to the solids, fluids, gases, mixt 
In Nature's crucible, exprest, to law 
Science is in pursuit of; she, assured. 
Reason is as contingent on pure blood 
As is a yeoman's muscle— impotent 
To ill-conditioned brains. The fact of thought 
Seems a bold feat of chemistry, so far. 
As, science, yet, has treed the intellect. 
In man's cognition, every gap, faith fills 
With a God, personal— but Science waitei 
Her better opportunity. 



108 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

—Man may, albeit, in the gorilla, find 
A kinsman and confess it, yet, what harm, 
Or, what humiliation, in it, true? 
It had been, simply. Nature's privilege 
So, to unfold a man, a process, hers. 
Exposed to wonder— and had clinched the truth 
True worth is what man is, not what, he was, 
In some dead ancestor : 'tis well nigh true— * 
Who was thy father, man ? is obsolete ; 
Who art thou, man, thyself ?— birth, but as- 
sumes 
A fitness, left, to worth, to vindicate : 
Birth is a small contingent, under arms. 
Against an ambush ; blood is worth no more 
When worth, the most, than, rectitude had 

fetched 
In a dull market. 

Creeds are the dry-rot of the centuries. 

To break th' heart of th' oak, make motionless, 

Its restive branches : all the sap, wherewith, 

The Ages are, in leaf, is, but, the zeal 

Of man who would do right, inquiring, how. 

Action, tho' evil or the world's great heart 

Stood still, disfunctioned. 

—Nothing, beyond, should kindle glory, here, 

And healing common life, so jaded, torn. 

Make every hazard, sweet : prodigious gain, 

Eternal life, a day, be that day, man's. 

Here, is man's home, and here his final rest : 

Who, on some eve, may gently fall asleep. 

Yet, fail to wake, next morrow, as his wont, 

Fall'n on a longer nap— while furtively, 

Science doth swing her lantern thro' the grave. 

And finds man, snugly, there. 

-^Lay but a grain of poison on his tongue, 

The shuddering Buddhist may forego all fear 

Of re-incarnate life— Nirvana come. 

Mind, tho', a product with creative power, 

Hath no more mystery, concealed therein, 

Than, hath an atom. 

—Man's, if, but a spark. 
Amid stupendous suns, he doth bestride. 
The rider and his ride ephemeral- 
He should feel grateful, that, he doth exist 
To th' Source, whence life proceeds : so gratitude 
For a full stomach or a polar fleece 
Is an emotion, had required no shrine. 
All soil were sacred to its exercise. 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 109 

Is man to stultify experience, 
To win the favor of Supernal Powers ? 
Must that, the eyes and ears of all mankind 
Eeport to reason, as a verity 
Surrender, at discretion, to a voice, 
From Galilee, or, Mecca? What, his shame, 
That, man has, ever, for a moment, held 
The witness of his senses— fallible ? 
What'er delusion promises to men. 
More, than Aladdin's lamp^ hath audience, 
And swarms with votaries : men are so frail, 
Delusions serve for wine, since, indolence 
May brim the flagon. 

Morality is the one cult on the earth, 
Which undivided, indivisible, 
Shall surviA^e man's traditions and repair 
The evils, in their name and demonstrate 
That, th' supernatural is Nature's self. 
Not, ethics in the shadow of a spire. 
But morals in the circle of the home. 
Pure, from a father's or a mother's lips ; 
With no root, there, ethics had ceased to be. 
Bread is rcligioji, proffered, ere, it mould : 
Salvation, oft, the cramming of a loaf 
Down th' fasting stomach. True morality 
Is more a river, than, the Amazon, 
With an affluent, in the Hebrew decalogue. 
Men, to attain the summit of a man. 
Require no pagan stairway to ascend : 
God was not in His infancy, when, men, 
Clearly in theirs, affect to speak, by Him. 
Man's worth to-day exceeds a thousandfold 
The best quotations, of th' Mosaic Age. 

Eeverence is a distemper, that has brought 
On man, more evils, than, all, casualties 
Quintupled, Nature's : Man, if, with a soul 
Or, man without one, dead, is it with him, 
The crisis of his fate, a dogma, spurned ? 
Who hath the power to light a fagot, had 
Prompt, to occasion— hence, t' anticipate 
The fact, v/ere wisdom, by forestalling it, 
In Power, yet, possible : it is so true, 
'Tig, ever, but, a question of more power. 
Who fires the pile, or, who shall roast thereon. 
—Time, now, is ripe, to s^y to him, who boasts — 
I had a vision, or, I heard a voice. 
Thou' liest, man ; thou bast not seen, nor heard 
But, what is, common, to experience. 



110 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

To a barbarian, a barbariaii's God : 

To cultured man, a cultured God appears, 

As th.' image of man's brain, thrown, on the 

screen,, 
That chronicles his mental history. 
The fortunes, if, committed, of tliis sphere, 
To reason and to law, inflexible, 
'Tis, then, to mathematics, that, ma^n errs, 
Or, to raw reason— and man's providence 
God doth not challenge. 

Who did it changes, not, the quality 

Of any action ; that, were evil, God's, 

If, evil, by a fiend : to evidence. 

Men prove, that, black is white, or, white is 

black, 
Tho', neither, yet has changed its hue a whit. 
Her type, in Proteus, conscience might be 

known 
As th' fabled lizard, so content, with th' hues, 
Of life, contiguous. Over this world, raise 
The banner of expediency, whose folds. 
While, lustrous, with man's arms, smell of a 

loom 
Wherein, no spindle, not a pledge 'of peace. 
What custom, man's, so sacred, but, its breach 
Than, its observance, may prove, holier? 
—At the equator, conscience liquifies ; 
Yet, at Fuego, waits a sailor's ham ; 
It, to the Orient, Hymen glorified, 
In, quite, five hundred marriages, for one. 
Who, with an easy gait, shall tour the sphere 
From Hottentot to Hindu, conscience finds 
And, always, pander ^to the reigning vice, 
Or, winking at it— a convenient fact 
That much is made of : to experience. 
Conscience seems rapid logic, nothing, more. 
A dicer hath the conscience of his dice ; 
A gamester, of his cards : each bigot, his. 
Defined, not, by some other, but aspersed— 
Since, there's no compass affects points, enough 
To serve good conscience. 
—To tolerate each faith men might elect. 
Seemed feasible, ere conscience had been found 
A cover for the evil men would do, 
As, often, as the Nemesis of vice. 
With th' moral code, perfected, by the State 
The citizen, who finds his conscience, still. 
Unreconciled, must bear its penalties- 
Conscience, the purer morals, or, a lie. 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. Ill 

Man should, first, find, what conscience is, and, 

then, 
How much, 'tis worth, pending, a holocaust, 
To her entreaty, who has, falsely, spilt 
Blood, that had swum the Navi^ of all Powers ; 
More rogues, thro' conscience, shielded, than 

were scoured. 

That monster Fear hath man, in thrall, to faith, 
The monster's own device. What, man's, to 

fear. 
Not, his misdoing? Not, a hint, or, sign, 
Of danger, man's, in Nature: man evoked 
The very fear that haunts him— who hath powe 
To slay the devil, he begat, himself, 
When, liis, the nerve to do it. Hell is thus. 
Fear's rash deduction, just, as Heaven is hope's 
Fear, never, yet found God, but courage may : 
Courage is that, hope prospers and God greet 
As something, like Him : God, if voluble. 
Men's ears are prickt, and, yet, may hear fron 

Him, 
Who seems, to Silence, to make overtures 
Of unreserved surrender. 
—Nothing, for fear, but, what man sayet 

false 
Or doeth evil, is a formula 
That hath man's true salvation, in its gift. 
Not, a slight hold mythology hath, yet. 
On man's imagination, tho' it served 
Man, as a cable serves a straining ship, 
Oft, in the classic era : man's concern 
Seems, late, lest, famine close the argument. 
For his existence, longer, but, in ruts 
Of power and abject servitude. What, man, 
If, not, th' illumined mammal, vulgar Time 
Hath, oft, dealt ill by, who must cease his 

pranks 
To man, insurgent ? 

—Freedom, with culture has byilt hospitals, 
While, Faith was rearing dungeons : thus, the 

eye 
Notes gloomy Abbeys, on the map of faith. 
But, rarely, finds a pillow for the sick. 
Or, surgeon, for the maimed. To liberty, 
Life hath a value, in longevity, 
To faith, it had not— which was consummate. 
Wound, in a dogma, hushed, at early dawn. 

Think, of St. Simon, on a pillar, stood, 



112 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Whence, serving God for more than twenty 



years 



Had God not rather, seizing by the heels, 
{Snatched Simon tlience— to serve Heaven faith- 
fully 
In daily toil, than blistering, to the skies 
Of Syria daily— God, if in the case? 
The duty laid on all men, to do good. 
Who had disputed, had, for cavU's sake ; 
How, when, and where are subject to debate, 
Lest undue zeal mistake the time or means 
Of realizing purposes divine. 
Yet in each hour in every twenty-four, 
God had been served, who therein succors man 
In straits, to shame, disease, improvidence. 
O, what a rose is every gracious deed, 
Still sweet at fourscore, should it find thy nose 
Thro' the chinks of recollection ! It is true. 
That riches may forsake thee— it is false, 
larhat goodness thou hast done may cast thee off- 
It were thy fortune, left, thy riches tied. 
Eeligion were not a belief or creed, 
Were but an engine of beneficence. 
That from the text of common suffering 
Had drawn its earliest precept and its last. 
St, James' religion, therefore, best, to-day 
Was best when he confest it ; best, ere Christ, 
It shall be best forever— to do good, 
If left undone, what, man's worth doing, done ? 
Eeligion is an eager pocketbook, 
Had rescued a lost brother, or had raised 
A sister, fallen— is the kindliness, 
Had cast its fatherhood, o'er orphanage : 
Known, by one name, or many, God is— whence. 
Whom, men had served, who follow, tho' afar. 
Each blow on Vulcan's anvil falls unheard. 
Silence, if, due the fashion of an ear, 
Lo ! Man's some special auricle, a roar 
As of a tempest, had been, from the hushed 
Midsummer forest— while the coursing blood 
Thro' vein and artery, of mortals, heard, 
Man normal, had been mad. Yet there may be 
No mystery in silence, save the fact, 
Tliat Nature, but mechanics, at their best. 
Betrays no jar or strain. 

—From poverty of knowledge, gods have 

sprung, 
Which penury sustains them— dwindling thence 
In numbers, to more knowledge into one. 
Whom, Science startles in a grain of sand, '' 



5^HE REVOLT OF REASON. 113 

Pursuing Him, with lens and crucible. 

— Eeligion must be tried, where, it hath yet 

Evaded trial, or ilias put it otf , 

Demanding faith, when pushed for evidence. 

Faith, more a product, but of mother's milk, 

Than, of conviction. 

—The Eastern Magi are responsible 

For half the dreary fables, by the East 

Eevered with pious reverence— but, when. 

The Chaldean astrologer had cast 

His night-owl iu the pot, the broth seduced 

The semi-reason of the Hebrew clan. 

God to the Greek, a sample Hellenist, 

The Eoman lashed Him., to liis conquering car ; 

While, man, to-day, who, sadly, turns from 

each, 
Waits information. 

'Twere a misnomer to hail Christendom, 

By any name, not reason's : Christendom 

Is, but, the trade-sign of the Middle Age, 

Swung, yet, on royal hinges— while, within, 

Traffic partakes not, of the Orient, 

But, bears the stamp, of Western righteousness. 

Man has been scared, not, cursed, and all he 

needs 
Is to recover, bravely, from his fright : 
Christendom, but, man's genius,. half in flower; 
Meum and tuum, thrice, as palpable, 
As, to ancestral nomads, with the light. 
Due social friction, man's. 

It is alms 
With the fruit of culture that has made the 

scent 
Of Christendom, a garden of blown thyme: 
Her charities, a sheaf, held in the grasp 
Of costly fable— like a candlestick, 
Its price, ten thousand fold, the light it sheds. 
Could Christ return and make His pledges good. 
He had disclaimed all knowledge of the West, 
Yet, had found Sjrm, much, as in His day. 
What glory Western genius has achieved 
Christianity appropriates; the fact. 
The West is known as Christendom, has swept 
Each precious gem into her jewel box. 
What wisdom, Western genius, yet, displays 
Is the first crop, that Liberty has reaped, 
Half, due the sickle's edge. 

The faith of th' early Fathers looked afar. 



114 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Who on the elder Canon laid all stress, 
Too recent Christ or Paul, for these, to quote 
Distance, in time, made sacred, even, then. 
What distance still makes sacred : even Paul 
Had doubts cast, thick, on his apostleship ; 
Nor do the early Fathers leave a hint 
The Gospels, then, were written— but suggest, 
Doubt, tliro' the scripture, cited, which has 

since 
Been voted non-canonical : herein. 
History has no vantage to lend faith. 
But, leaves her, to invention, desolate. 
Let doctors' wigs curl, promptly, to discuss 
Knots, medieval, by theology 
Yet, proffered faith— tho' reason with a smile 
May with a jack-knife slash each precious 

knot. 
Man were Tjorn, fitly, if but to enjoy— 
Whom, virtue rewards gently, for good deeds ; 
Whom, vice doth roundly lash for evil ones. 
Wliat motive, God's, to have withdrawn from 

man 
Yet, by the East, in a Chaldean's ear, 
Have breathed a purpose, that a purpose, 

failed, 
Exclusive, Sin His heart, both him and his— 
God's love for man, postponed, or hinging, it, 
On lapses, theirs, sprung of him .^ Done, of 

God, 
And if not level with man's reason, why ? 
Eeason, alone, is absolute to man, 
For him, appeal no higher, tho' to God: 
Hence, loyalty transparent, he most glad 
To serve, her liege, if worthy mastership, 
Divine as hers— since, slavery is sweet. 
That, to the obedience of the intellect 
Hath joined the passionate heart. 

—Man's need is purer morals and less grace 
To heal innumerous lapses ; since, he bears, 
Unwittingly, the pains of every breach. 
To ce;rtify man's reason of the 'fact, 
Wlioever sins, must suffer, despite grace. 
Is natural religion and man's own. 
Mint into sterling coin the costly shrines 
That have no meaning God-ward— all such gold 
Should reflect God in pure beneficence. 
No ill had ensued laughter, should men lausrh 
At much, men have dubbed, sacred— since the 

right 
To laugh is, quite, as sacred, as the power 



THE HEVOLT OF REASON. 115 

To carve a slirine and bid mankind adore. 
The world is better, than, its creeds, to-day, 
In that, it hath a common conscience, man's 
Faith in a dogma, but, the underling 
To faith in the gold, that props it. 

The Hebrew Scriptures are responsible 
For a shrewd Arab, in a Mahomet, 
Who hath succeeded Moses and the Christ, 
As Allah's greater Frophet ; so the pen 
Of the Hebrew sponsors Mormon lechery 
In the polygamous dots, it left beliind. 
A bishop, as the husband of one wife, 
Gives to the later code, that perilous wrencl 
The elder Canon, no wise, blushes for. 
The blight, on woman, lays its curse on man 
Whose maudlin sentiment would tolerate 
More wives, than, one, to the insidious plea- 
Less fallen women— as, if, all, were not, 
In plural marriage, fallen lower, still, 
Than, such as block the way to the potter' 
field? 



—Purred, in the jungle, whistled, in the air, 

Monogamy is Nature's law of life, 

WTiere, life's conditions stir love, conjugal. 

Men may abate a nuisance and not wait 

The law's delay, that, oft, doth lag, so far. 

Behind outraged justice, that, abhorred. 

Hath done a mischief, past all remedy. 

Ere, heaves, in sight, the law's executive. 

Thus, bestial saints, do scour the earth for 

maids 
To stock their bunks with, in the name of 

Heaven, 
Under the nose of manly continence. 
It matters, less and less, what men profess 
The issue, what men do— is uppermost : 
WThat villiany, so black, but lust, or gold 
May touch into a dolphin ? 

If, man would have a future, let him live 
To expectation, gently, as he should ; 
At one, with Nature's law : to live, divine, 
Ennobles man and patents all his blood. 
With heritable riches— whose best thoughts. 
Like Nature's marvels, disappoint us,, first, 
Yet, educate our wonder, afterwards. 



116 A MAMMAL ONLV. 

Man, e'en, is classing among verities, 
Conceits, whereat, his gorge was wont to rise 
The day may dawn, a lie had not survived 
A moment, in the world's Irank atmosphere. 
Who forgeth irons, lor man head or hands 
Waits death upon a gallop : where, is not 
So much the issue, as when, best, to strike, 
Spurring each lost occasion, foaming, back 
Success, but, valor, worsted, twice, or thrice 
Ere, knighted, on the field, lor gallantry. 
Who stirs a lion, in the hope, to lay 
His anger, roused, shall have mortal proof. 
If, merciless, or, not, a lion's fangs. 
Man, in tlie West, is all the type of man, 
Worth quoting, but to dreamers ; ail wlios 

brain 
Appears the outcome of his liberty, 
Man, in the West,, half Godless, to his creeds 
. Grows, holy, to th' evangel— units, men. 
What weak men starve on is the aliment 
High purposes do gorge with. 

Immortal is not found in the Bible text, 

Touching man's nature : if eternal life 

Is promised man, 'tis pledged, thro' faith in 

Christ ; 
Pledged, by the lips of Christ, nor, otherwise 
Who, if, a man, the [pledge were worth a 

man's. 
Thro' resurrection, well, unargued, how. 
A word not found within the elder scrolls. 
While writ with Aryan ink, when, writ, at all 

—if Lazarus was raised from the dead, 

Christ had, to Martha, made this utterance- 

I am the resurrection and the life ; 

In me, whoso believeth, he shall live ; 

Tho' he were dead, shall live, and never die 

To Lazarus, not raised, rhetoric, 

From his Platonic pen, who gave the world 

The fourth Evangel.— But, Christ, elsewhere 

said 
Of many mansions is my Father's house ; 
I would have told you, if, it were not so ; 
I, thither, go your places to prepare; 
And, if, I go and these prepare for you, 
I will return and take you to myself. 
That, where, I am, there, ye may also dwell 
A declaration he left, unfulfilled, 
If, ever, uttered by the lips of Christ; 



TH-E REVOLT OF REASON. 117 

Who, if, lie, thither, went, did not return. 
For life, beyond, such, is Christ's argument 
Wherein, once more, the end heaves, full, in 

sight. 
A resurrection were a promise, man's ; 
A feat, indeed, impossible, to God: 
A reproduction were a promise, God's. 
To men, as sparrows, mortal, by the lips 
Of th' Hebrew oracles— a future life 
Were, like a graft, set in a stem, long dead : 
Wha.t was a man— a blade of grass, a flower, 
Or, e'en, fthe pestilence that smites the town 
A reproduction, possible, to God, 
Is, nowhere, pledged men. 

'Tis th' invisible hath time undone, 

Whereof, man knoweth nothing, yet, has made 

Populous with his fancy, arming it. 

With terrors, nameless. 

—A waiting posture seems a wiser one 

Than to acclaim God in each candidate. 

For there's no scroll upon the planet found 

Not, to the gauge of man's own genius, writ; 

With notliing worthy of man's intellect 

As a conception of the Deity 

In all his Shastres— tho' men still look back 

At th' vellum, shelved, in Asia. 

—Light, strong, enough, shall so adjust men's 

rights. 
Clamor shall cease, in common equity : 
The era of man's victory is come. 
Not, swampt, by Ms delusions, but, ashore. 
To lusty swimming. 

— Eeligion seems the scrawl a shild had made, 
Ere, reason nibbed the pen, to write man's 

life. 
The costly fiction, of a life to come. 
Thrives, saddled with the squalor, it creates 
Not acumen, enough, in all Gray's Inn, 
To have relieved its guilt, a feather's weight 
A theory of life, if, "whollj^ false. 
Were, to be abrogated, not reformed. 
E'en, by a revolution of pure thought, 
Man may be extricated peacefully. 
And set in fair pursuit of life's true ends. 
To enter, play and exit seems, enough, 
As much as Nature owes man : What is man ? 
Who, sometimes, thinks, he ought to figure 

hence, 
A reproduction, to new properties ? 



Il8 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

An incident, but, in. a planet's growth. 

The less a man believes, the more, he knows : 

Wisdom has slirunk, in bulk, yet, grown, in 

weight : 
Learning had spread more wing than she had 

wind; 
So, many discarding half, he dreampt he knew, 
Is perching, daily, higher, nearer ground: 
Wliile, who would teach the world, the world 

has taught. 
Man gave himself the likeness of a God, 
When, Gods were, at his beck, who, now con- 
cedes 
His countenance, mammalian from the start 
Man, with the universe, has no concern : 
Nature, no trader— inly, who intends 
Bankruptcy, at convenience and designs 
By fLnal conflagration to expunge 
Proof, of her turpitude.— All fear to die 
Is as unnatural, as scorn to live; 
Each man's false entry in the book of life. 
Which courteous Death doth balance with a 

smile. 
Faith, in his masters, left man in the dust ; 
Faith, in himself, has raised him to his feet : 
Man's growth is, to morality— whose Gods 
Take to illumined vellum and there die. 
Man, yet, unfinished, must be, till convinced 
Here is his home, not, hence : tho' of trifling 

cost, 
To pregnant Nature, man, to reproduce, 
She had declined with caustic emphasis. 
In getting riches, God has no concern. 
Nor, in man's honors : in the game of life 
The stakes are man's, when, lost— are man' 

when won. 

Is that, poison, true ? 
Tho' the truth slay thee, speak it, better, far 
To die, to honor, than, survive to shame : 
He were not worth the .plaudits of mankijid 
Who could not bear the scorn of all th^world 
ITnruflfled, by it. Who, misunderstood, 
Is great, enough, to win the whole world' 

nate, 
May capture the world's heart, when bette 

known. 
So, if, the world condemn thee, deem it proo 
Thou'rt worth damnation— the age seldon 

halts. 
To trifle with a fool. Maintain thy cause, r 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 11» 

When, thou art certified, the ground is firm, 
Wliereon, thou standest, tho' the world eject 
Much rheum against thee and expectorate 
Its gall, in rivers— for such cowardice 
Proves, the world hath no argument, where 

with 
To meet thy challenge. Tho' addition be 
The law of increase, no arithmetic 
May deal with wisdom, which is consummate 
A unit, stood, against the millionth power 
Of any numeral. Thought, lately, come 
To th' rescue of man's fortunes, shall hav 

seized 
The throats of all his swarming enemies ; 
A bloodhound, from whose scent, no felon flies 
Man seeks a change: The West is in tha 

groove. 
Of mastership and slave, the Orient 
Hath, ever, dragged in, which the Westeri 

mind 
Endures, yet, madly spurns. 
—Whoever thinks, profoundly, for mankind. 
Has declared war, on custom and his ears. 
May, thence, be fusilladed, with a storm, 
Of scathing objurgation : fear of change 
Doth tolerate the fabulous, to-day ; 
Since, who believes it? Faith? But what i 

faith, 
That dwells, or, may, in the edge, of an ; 

axe. 
Swung by a headsman ? It is orthodox 
To dwell, on the earth gently and there 

thrive ; 
And, he's a heretic who starves his maw. 
To his traditions— tho', so marvellous, 
If, man's true riches have their origin. 
Where, 'tis so hard, with the best microscope 
To find a trace of silver, in the rock. 
Due, to the arms of Eome, to nothing, else, 
That Eastern superstitions dominate 
The Western Nations.— What is pure to-day 
Takes its complexion from the current Age; 
Is reason's, with her torch held, thrice, a 

high. 
As th' tallest steeple, in all Christendom. 
Orthodox means and, ever, meant, the powe 
To kindle fagots on the wretch, too weak. 
To put the fire out. 

A Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, 



120 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Tho' this was written before Christ was born, 
Wiiile ChriBt was not iu the bard's fancy's 

eye— 
A Virgin, wed to Joseph, did conceive , 
Who bore a Son in Jesus Christ, her lirst; 
As, any Virgin, wed, may bear a son ; 
A widower, in Joseph, Mary's spouse. 
It seerns, but stress, laid on pure motlierhood ; 
Tho' Faith would entertain a mii-acle. 
And Fancy gives a star erratic fligiit. 
Man, in a near, not, in a distant, hence. 
Probing tlie secrets of the centuries. 
Shall, in the nineteenth, at a triple crown. 
At, in the first, a visible Deity, 
Start, marvel, smile and wonder,, what. Faith 

was. 

No stigma, in a charge of heresy 

But, an explosion from a pinch of snuff 

Had blown to atoms : God's, at second hand, 

Hearsay— to sift and argue as men will. 

Who marks the laws of Nature swerve a hair. 

To bless one, for his penance, or, to curse 

Th' unflagellated many ? 

—Each man's opinion is quite orthodox, 

When guns permit it ; heresy, itself, 

But, tlie majority's anathema: 

Heresy, yet, no topic for debate, 

Till, proven, heresy were possible, 

With blasphemy, its medieval twin : 

Since, every statute, as to blasphemy. 

Implies the right, in a majority. 

To, first, define God's wUl then t' enjoin, 

On the minority, assent, thereto. 

By reverence, penal. 

—Men, still, slinli cowards, behind old redoubts, 

Thrown up, by semi-savages, instead, 

Of courting battle, in the open field. 

Each cult assumes th' estate of man, as found, 

Both, fixt and changeless and adapts itself 

To its conditions : an immobile world, 

Asia's prime maxim.— Subject, to review. 

Whatever, man believes, or, man may, hence, 

In that, infallible, a caveat, 

Aginst experience, or a brighter torch. 

—Gold, not involved, and not a yard, or ell 

Of bishop's lawn, conceive of heresy ? 

Nor, living, fatter, than, th' Apostle Paul's? 

New faith, or, none, seems far more imminent 

Than, is a dogma, vital. She, on fire, 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 121 

The flames of reason have quite charred the 

leaves 
Whence heresy has sprung. 
—The lion hath not credit, but, his cage, 
Therein, if, merciful : a whifl: of blood. 
Him, loose, in the arena, drives the beast 
Back, to his jungle. Once, return to Faith, 
And Faith, again, were Mistress of mankind. 
The right of private judgment she denies. 
Itself, the weapon, that shall cleave her down, 
Should Light continue, common property. 
To his emotions, man is, what, he will ; 
Is,, to his reason, what, he, ever, seems : 
No creeds, no zealots— only, common, man, 
What a sweet world, to breatlie in ? 
—Light must be blessed shot from any sphere; 
Darkness were cursed, tho' a mother's eye. 
Tradition is no oracle— her bays 
Votive, as at Olympia, won, or lost. 
To emulation, always : what is false ? 
Is reason's proviace— not, what seemeth true? 
Fear^, to man's primal fancy, sealed his lips 
And shut the door on inquest— but, is, late, 
A feather, blown,, by all winds of contempt. 
Belief, against man's reason, is belief 
That hath enslaved him, who hath played hi 

part 
To superstition, gleaming from a cloud, 
Eeason discharges, harmless. 
—Time was, indeed, when Superstition held 
The keys of destiny, and to have slain 
The monster, then, had raised one, dreaded 

more, 
Than that, beheaded : now, if, at a stroke 
To slay the monster, had recovered man, 
From the Himalayas, to the Pyrenees. 
Eeligion and the State were, always, one. 
And to tradition are a unit, stni, 
Man, the defenseless quarry both pursue. 
All the confusion of this eager world 
Is man's, who could restore the world to peace 
Had done it, if, he would ; had, but for faitl 
In Power, unknown, to adjust life some day 

hence. 
Ignoring Power, confest, tho' Nature's own. 
In man, made luminous. Improvidence 
Is this world's prime reproach, most justly 

man's. 
In that, he doffs his courage to his faith. 
Men shrink to question every sacred tale, 



122 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Woven into the warp and woof of life, 
By Time's insidious shuttle: Karnac weeps 
In each surviving stone, her fallen Gods : 
No God had reared a Temple, man had razed; 
No God had done an act, man had undone; 
Nor, could God speak a word, man could gain- 
say, 
Whate'er is God's, why, wince, lest, it may 

fall ? 
—God, as a father and of many sons, 
Hopes their success and when they prosper, 

smiles : 
Yet, never, lifts a hand to succor one, 
Beyond another, lest, a doubt be cast 
On his impartial love: the gold their own, 
Whose industry has hoarded— God affects 
No title to it. Unlike energies, 
With unlike opportunities, dispose 
Of power and riches, as, but, problems, man's. 
Factors, in an economy, man's own- 
To silence in his sire, completely, man's. 
Silence, itself, is more significant, 
Than any fact, in Nature, if, a law, 
'Tis that law, paramount. 

Not, innate is religion, nor, is fear. 

Fear, as the child of ignorance, begat 

Eeligion and dame Fancy suckled her : 

False, as man's notions of the Earth, itself. 

The source of all religion man hath yet : 

Eeligion a chimera of man's own, 

Of his imagination, a disease. 

Proves, of all maladies, most virulent. 

Man, in God's image, what had Time, to dread 

But, God, the less, a God, in more, a man ? 

—No hope for Liberty, but, in the fact. 

Of faith, at war, with faith ; or faith, no more. 

The Church, if, man's, she, hence, had served 

herself. 
E'en, at the cost, of life and liberty. 
Man's fear of death, whence, he descried hia 

hell. 
Or glimpsed his heaven, is that authority 
His valorous reason shall have overtln-own. 
To no commotion, other, than, a smile. 
Pure morals stand, to man, as hull and helm. 
As, shroud and sail, as seamanship and port. 
To clear and enter. 
—The last entren client of theology 
Flies Eeason from its parapet, assured , 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 123 

Reason and Eevelation are, but, twins ; 
Yet, represents the Church, unblushingly, 
As, their co-equal— much like hauling coals 
To Newcastle, since, reason must possess 
The field, alone, or, must abandon it, 
To Superstition, frankly, whence, have sprung 
The Church and revelation : light, enough, 
For one man, reason's, light enough, for all ; 
While, revelation and the Church, both fail, 
Handicapt, to reach all men, reason doth, 
Itself, all men's salvation. Pitiful 
When, th' Church appeals to that, the Church 

forbids 
A liberal use of, lest, adieu to faith. 
Thus, faith, to-day seems less alarmed for th' 

truth, 
Than for her mitres— it is less, with her. 
What shall the Church accept, than, what 

device 
Had stayed her rocking spires, in the sti£E gales 
Of free opinion. 

—Man, mortal, is most glorified, who casts 
Dying, his immortality, behind. 
Exit, forever : What, so masterful, 
To stir ambition., as to build a man, 
Unsullied, or magnificent, or just? 
Of sheer necessity, a man is born ; 
Of sheer necessity, he falleth, dead— 
Whose future state is fame, or, daffodils,. 
Man's annals, lost, recovered and the chasm. 
Pending his alphabet, bridged, o'er, were worth 
His bullion, ten times, over : Mystery 
Involves his genesis, with eA^ery fowl's, 
Tho' th' doors of exit are, or, seem, alike. 
Man has begun, albeit, awkwardly. 
To tap the till of Nature, and the thief 
May line his pockets, yet : so evident. 
If, a resplendent destiny be man's, "^ 

WTien he comes to it— to have tethered man, 
With a barbarian, yoked, in the lean fields 
Of Asia, had undone God. 
—Nature's perpetual frankness is the key 
That, best, interprets Nature ; whose sweet face 
Is, ever, framed, in smiles, but, to false moods 
In her illustrious mammal. Nature's freaks 
She hath not yet, exhibited a freak. 
But, to some law that had been trifled with; 
Who, never, did ^ marvel, out of course ; 
Tho' all, she is, seems marvelous, to man, 
From daisies, upward. Man, himself, appears 



124 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

That motive-moved machine, of consciousness 
And grossly fed experience, that relates 
Man, to progressive reason. To have won 
The lordship of a planet, seems man's right, 
Of Nature, uncontested; whose brief life 
Done, man is finished. Why should Nature 

nurse 
A purpose, to withhold the fact, from man. 
He is, immensely, worthier, than, he seems, 
If, indeed, worthier? His vainglory, then, 
Should be a robe, if, worn on gala-days, 
Yet, cast aside with scorn, in common life. 
The Earth is reason's playground and the chil 
Frolics and gambols and may much amuse 
Supernal Powers, if, mindful, of the bairn. 
Man, the imperial mammal of the globe, 
To speculation, would ignore the fact, 
His rank is mortal : if, to argument, 
Nature inclined her sceptre, to present 
Man, to more honor, than, her purpose had, 
Who had not argued, long and lustily? 
Faith, while, man's worst delusion is the 

mouth. 
That bolts all others down : but, to believe 
A crime as capital, as to have thrust 
A dagger in his heart, who, ever, stood, 
To thee, a brother. Logic is the fact 
Of this world's progress— which defeated faith 
And mathematics wrote across the sky ; 
Which, man, a unit and invincible, 
This world's prime factor and immediate God, 
Argues, so justly. 

Wherein, is sanity may, yet, be man's 

Most precious problem: men, most prompt, to 

!Rtetreats, for madmen, may themselves be 

found. 
Swayed, by hallucinations, as pronounced. 
As simmer, in the brains, of maniacs. 
Fashion so flavors folly— it is sane. 
To do, what were, insane, done, in the cell. 
Of any mad-house. 

The gold, of generations of the dead. 

At death, devoted, piously, to prop 

This, or, that dogma, has postponed the fall 

Of errors, manifold : gold stirs their zeal 

To propagandise, who have gold, at will. 

That, most distinctly human, if, found, true 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 125 

Stands, unsupported: it, most marvelous. 
Why, that, divine, requires a prop, at all. 
Few devotees had life consumed, in rites, 
And meditation, but, for gold, abused— 
That may permit it : vows, of poverty 
But, slightly, pinch the pious devotee. 
Whom, gold, in the funds, stands pledged, to 

feed and clothe. 
The anchorite of Asia had proved true. 
To his traditions of five thousand years, 
Gold, not, if, lentils were and had retained, 
Scourged home, the light, he lit. 
— Ahl what a felon, he, who, his, the power. 
Had murdered Light and men had suffered 

him? 
Man, in his generations, to endure. 
While, th' planet shall support him hath no 

time 
To pander to the errors of the past : 
Custom^ must prove its fitness, not by its age. 
All argument, fallacious, that appeals 
Gravely, to what men do, for what men should 
Light hath the privilege to slay, outright, 
Whatever, menaces the weal of man ; 
Since, th' tail hath no election, but, to wag. 
And, where, the head may lead, to follow on : 
Tho' ignorance profound may seek delight. 
For its o"v^Ti sake, in grosser ignorance, 
Knowledge, impossible.— Authority 
Seems, but, opinion,, subject, to review. 
And faith, the aliment, whereon, a child 
Feeds, till he reach discretion— afterwards, 
A child, forever, if still fed, thereon. 
A pagan seems, whoever may not think, 
As, he doth, who would gain a proselyte. 
Should man, again, pour out his blood to faith 
It might be., to suppress and not sustain 
His, late, convictions : martyrdom, to-day. 
For any cause were weak, as suicide 
E'en for a love distemper. Character, 
Some think, if Heaven exist, had entered it- 
Shot, thitherward, from the howitzer. Death, 
Denied a pass, from Mecca, or from Eome. 
Faith makes no proof of any tiling, but faith 
Juggernaut, boasting martyrs, as may Christ, 
Faith, falsely, guarantees, its object, worth 
The blood spilt for it : faith, unreasoning trust 
In what, men will, is faith, was, always, faith 
Faith, that had cast a mountain in the sea, 
Of quantity, a mustard seed, in bulk, 



126 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Man, never, may enjoy, unless 'tis faith^ 
In some explosive dwariing dynamite. 
If, hard, to give our father's dogmas up, 
'Twere, harder, to retain them. As divine, 
Christianity, therein, may cease to be: 
A cult, premising, that, Uie destinies 
01 all the sphere, are subject to her own- 
Prediction, false, for nigh, two thousand years : 
Whose ethics are the culture by the West 
Of th' cardinal virtues, man's, and, always, 

man's. 
—In the prediction, of th' END OF THE WORLD, 
A sameness runs, so startling, tliro' the text. 
Of the Synoptic Gospels, as, to hint 
Interpolation, or, a common pen, 
In the unknown compilers. TaJke the ground, 
Christ in- His own esteem, was, but, a man, 
Who hailed, in common life, the end of Time, 
Pursuant, to tradition— 'twere a stride, 
Easy, to Godship, in a fabling Age, 
The Moralist and Good Physician, dead : 
In Isaac's, Samson's, Samuel's birth, for 

John's, 
Suggestion, as, for Christ's, of the marvelous. 
Yet, Samuel's sire, a Hebrew, double-wived, 
Isaac's, a patriarch, with half-sister wed. 
With Hagar, unwed ; in Manoah's wife, 
Wlience, th' mytliic Samson, womanhood, re- 
marked. 
Concede, Christ made the prophesy, himself, 
Its non-fulfilment proves an Israelite, 
In th' toils of his own fancy : vain, the gloss, 
That, the prediction means but Salem's fall ; 
It points a dream, the most extravagant, 
In human annals— and the rendering, false. 
That had postponed a generation, born. 
To one remote, as witness of— THE END. 
Christ's, daily, cry was, ever. Watch and wait. 
Who gave to sweat an oflfice, for to-daj^ 
None, for to-morrow. 

The mind, of man, has, scarcely, yet, breathed 

free. 
Has, but, descried some straggling rays of 

light. 
Thro' th' crannies of her dungeon— but, hath 

hope 
Of sunshine, yet, on her unweathered cheeks. 
Light, tho', but, common sense, so crystalised 
Its purity sustains each crucial t^est: 



THE REVOLT OP REASON. Hi 

Still, Light's that hero, who against all odds, 
In armStt makes good a challenge, or sends home 
An unrepentant bullet. Tho', yet, in print. 
Statutes to punish light are obsolete. 
Time deals in golden moments and man's life 
Affects these units and not, centuries; 
Hence, man should have the privilege of life 
To no unfair conditions : thus, some day. 
Should Light invert the order of this world. 
Light had proved thi^ world, rotten. Light 

suggests 
First, opportunity, and, then, equips 
Man's reason, to command it. His, more cost, 
To bear the burthens of his ignorance, 
Than<, every laurel cost him, he has won. 
Man, at his worst, is better, than, he seems— 
Venture a kiss, and it is odds, he smiles. 
Let ignorance go veiled and lift her veil. 
But, to occasions, of necessity. 
What hamlet, but some oracle, therein, 
To whose, the wisdom of the outer world. 
Were, as a magpie's ? 

The Earth appears no stage, whereon, a God 
Is acting a grand drama, but where man 
Is playing at low comedy : the scene 
However, yet, may shift and th' player's shame 
Incentive him to glory. Time must prove 
His Gods, no product of the pastoral Age, 
Or, frankly, own they are, to all ears, prickt 
For revelation, from the chemist's jar. 
Man, still, a savage had abused the sphere, 
While, all the powers of Nature, to his spleen^ 
Had moved, submissive— e'en, no God had 

raised 
A finger to dethrone him ; to whose brain, 
Aglow, with light, still predicating more. 
He well enjoys an orb, abloom, to him; 
Yet, not a force in Nature, kindlier, moves 
To his ambition, than, it moved, erewhUe, 
To life, that laid her fortunes, desolate. 
Here, seems man's own economy, not God's : 
To God's assent, quite unreserved, man plays 
The role of master : every incident. 
In Nature, man's, to deal with, as he may, 
That baffles, or, promotes his hopes, or aims. 
If, God should speak one word, it had been law. 
And loud, enough, to shake the outmost star. 

To tolerate religion, as it is, 



i28 A MAMMAL ONLY'. 

Appeals to policy : reason lias made 
Her argument against the wiles of faith, 
And man accepts it : when and how to mend 
Eeligion, or, annul it, that, whereof, 
Time waits advisement. A conceit of man. 
To th' earth the apple of the eye of God, 
Eeligion, that seemed plausilDle, appears 
To th' universe, unveiled, preposterous. 
Light, dangerous, to man's errors, the world 

waits ; 
Not, power, obsequious, to them. 

Christianity, affecting hostile camps. 
From each unfurls its oriflam of faith ; 
And if hostilities should cease— that day 
Liberty were extinguished. As each rose 
Of fear and prime gunpowder— each shall fall, 
To both's disclaimer— tlio' the clans may, yet. 
Strike hands, for spoil, upon some evil day, 
Few marksmen, on th' alert. 

God, heed this, 
If, Thou hast, yet, heard prayer— Defeat the 

hope 
Of a unity of faith— the odds of power, 
Hers, lest. Faith roast, or dungeon man, again. 
To set m.an free, O God, from chains, his own. 
Extinguish faith, itself, and re-assure 
Man, Death concludes him, mortal, happily: 
E'en, palsy the knave's tongue, who argues 

faith 
Above man's reason, with the fool's, besides, 
Who sputters— bravo !— Freedom, ever, rose. 
To faith, at war and fell, to Faith, at peace; 
Faith, thine own enemy, in man's, O God. 
Is not man's freedom, ever, dear, to Thee? 
Christianity should be the Golden Rule, 
Eeduced to practice : all beyond, but froth 
Upon the beaker's brim, that urges faith 
In aught above man's reason, or below; 
Or, charges false, experience. 
—The dogmas of Christianity, alike, 
Discover Latium, more, than Nazareth; 
While, the freed genius of the West, her head, 
Self-luminous, has thrust between its lids, 
Two hundred years and credited the Book 
Oft, with the light, she lit, there; with such 

zeal. 
Men had sustained traditions of a God, 
Speaking, thro' sundry nomads, to all time. 
The temper Christ displayed is man's, for aye: 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 129 

While, th' Supernatural surveys her grave, 

And moralises, on her obsequies. 

Thought, ever, was and must be troublesome, 

To the pre-occupation ol the world, 

By man's unreason, until thought has swampt 

The hideous relics of a barbarous past. 

Man is not born, to find out God, or, die. 

To pains, for failure, tho' impossible; 

For this had charged insanity on God, 

To rescue Him, from sheer malevolence. 

Man, if, a vegetable, come to speech. 

Thro' eons of progression, were, he less 

A man, for such a lineage? Why, not, more, 

By all the glory, man's, beyond a snail's ? 

To misinterpret Nature is the fault, 

Man is persistent, most, to aggravate. 

As the corner-stone of primitive belief. 

Was laid in ciuicfesand, so, the wit of man 

Is, on the rack, to prop it— yet the crash 

Draws, nearer, by each shift : man honors God, 

Who remains silent and because He doth— 

The crucial test of wisdom, in a God. 

What, God, in essence, may, or, may not be. 

Nature doth raise no points of equity. 

For Him, to settle : law, inflexible, 

A star must stand, or, fall to, or a man. 

Is Nature's revelation— where, appears 

One precept and one penalty— obey. 

Or, thou Shalt perish. Thus, tho' men may 



Mercy, in Shastres, 'tis to changeless law, 
They live and die, eager, to be beguiled. 
Of Fancy, and to die, her willing dupe. 
Nature, thro' haste, gains nothing, hers, no 

loss. 
To the most tedious process, she elects ; 
Time is man's opportunity, not God's. 
Force pervades Nature from a grain of sand, 
To th' Himalayas— life, the subtle key 
To all her problems : wherein, beautiful, 
Grentle, or, sweet, such, always; so, wherein, 
Murderous, or diabolic, to man's view. 
Constant, in fresh surprises. What seems 

waste. 
Or, labor, quite, misspent, a problem, hers. 
So, reason seems as cheap, or, whate'er thinks. 
As carbon, oxygen, or life, itself. 
Her T) rices-current, seldom, bulletined. 
—Organic life and inorganic kiss, - . -, 

Somehow and somewhere, not, yet, advertised. 



130 A MAMMAL ONL^^. 

Thus, may a fern be cognate to the stirp 

01 Linnaeus, thro' eons of base blood. 

In beast and reptile : to the mystery 

Of life, man bows profoundly. It seems clear. 

There were no laws of Nature, e'en no need 

For any law whatever, if, a w^ord, 

By a Supreme Intelligence had reared 

The Universe and sways it : miracles 

Were, then, as possible, as probable ; 

Physics, with no vocation,, while, the mind 

Had drawn no data from experience ; 

At sea, forever, to a Sovereign Will, 

At liberty, to swerve. 

The Age demands an exodus of faith, 

An influx of pure reason : evidence, 

Both, clear and cogent, or, the jury nods. 

While, the Court sneezes, to its fiftieth pinch, 

A Cicero, propounding pleas, for faith. 

Give man, to tliink— withhold what else. Thou 

wilt. 
Great Source, he sprang from. 
—If, with the purse and sword, both, at its beck. 
What error had not stood and outraged light ? 
Tho' it but stood as any corpse had stood? 
\\Tiat man may demonstrate is, that, his brain 
Hath shaped this world and to its destinies. 
Imparted purpose— with tli' earth, his own. 
And his successors, in a usufruct. 
]\Ian's moral forces, joined with Nature's powers 
In cordial concert, baulk improvidence : 
Her destinies, in vaster ratio, man's 
Than he suspects, they may be— cowardized 
By th' prepossessions of the nursery. 
Light, from man's brain, alone, makes proof, 

the world 
Is not,, all, pagan, or barbarian; 
Wliich light, extinguished— in a howling sea. 
Life had gone down, forever. 

Faith, in the Supernatural, tho', false. 
The object of his faith, is urged on man 
As th' inspiration of his intellect, 
As th' lever, to uplift his character : 
Yet, man, the Supernatural, must accept. 
As, did the pagans, who conceived of it. 
Or, all its offices w^ere meaningless. 
Faith, such, as, of the past, is moribund. 
To the customs of this era, and what faith. 
Stands, unimpeached, is faith, in man, himself— 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 131 

To wliicli, is due the sixteenth century, 
When, men resolved, to tliink ; tho' in that age 
Men saw, as men, just, from a dungeon, had. 
— 'Tis thro' the mystery, investing it 
The power of th' invisible prevails 
Over man's reason, thro' the artifice 
Of fancy, wholly : that, invisible. 
Is, less, a matter, vital, to man's weal. 
Than, curious, to beguUe his scholarship. 
From the oracle of man's experience 
Proceeds a sermon, to whose sterliug sense. 
The stalls do, never, snore ; tradition's voice. 
Nasal, or gutteral, inducing sleep. 
—The cult of human nature shall endure, 
Founded on reason, with revision, oft, 
As, light, increasing, leads to broader aims. 
Cast man upon his mettle— bid him swim, 
Who needs no pagan life preserver, still. 
If, he, but, learn to hold his drooping chin. 
Above the surface of the roaring flood. 
A falsehood is a falsehood, be the frills, 
Of fancy, it may strut in, what they may. 
Chemistry and biology, both, smile. 
At that, divine, scarce, fifty years, ago. 
Man, yet, had no astronomy, if Faith 
Had still, a dungeon: faith to Ptolemy 
Points, not to Copernicus— and the trick 
Of Joshua, makes more of, than, of th' law 
Of gravity, that sets the trick, aside. 
Wisdom is in gestation— oracle 
Nor, prophecy concludes the birth to be : 
Freed, from his raw delusions man had turned 
To ethics, with a will— whereof too much 
Had not been his if, e'en thrice three times o'er 
The morals, vital, to a piety 
Oft, sidling past his frailties with a leer. 
Gold is a coward who had slipt within 
The church and hid her bullion, confident 
That Cherubim shall guard it— hath she not 
The pledge of Superstition, to her hands 
Lined, each with largess, of Heaven's vigil- 
ance? 

To come into existence and go out 
Is Nature's method ; to whom, life and death 
Are, perhaps, sjmonyms. So, to be meek, 
Becomes a man, and lowly ; fortitude 
Squared, to a glowering mountain, honors man, 
Whose glory lies, in what, men, least, esteem; 
Therein, no chink of gold ; in it no smack. 



132 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Of a choice vintage— chainless as the air. 
Like it, intangible, yet with the grip 

As of a demon a puissant aye, 

To all men's nays— in wisdom. 
—Yon stars sliine not, to an o'ermastering force 
Without them, but within them— theirs, the art 
"Whate'er, it be, to sliine : still. Science knows. 
Of this cheap sunshine, scarcely, anything; 
With power, or privilege, to quicken life. 
That, in prime order, keeps the perishing 

world. 
This animated sphere, more data, yet, 
Must furnish Science, ere, she pluck a quill 
To write the secret of the universe— 
Which seems, a God, yet, seems his product, 

too. 
Man's personality proves nothing, more. 
Than, had an insect's, when, the point is 

raised- 
Is God, a Person ? From man's infancyi 
God, not, in faultless broadcloth, smells, of th' 

loom. 
Whenever man portrays Him: let us have 
God, undefined— still, God. 

Just, as the Caspian Sea keeps all it gets 
E'en grudging to the Sun his revenues ; 
So, should a nation reservoir her sons. 
And scuttle ships had voyaged them afar ; 
Coaxing the frisky rivulet to crowd 
Its banks, with verdure. If, a State neglect 
To tni, or, stretch her acres— sonship due 
To a son's privilege, takes umbrage, thence. 
What? is the earth too shrunken, to sustain 
That life, born to it ? that were Nature's fault 
And she must answer for it— if not room 
For life and sweat, together. Who shall say. 
What, Nature's belt may hold, since no man, 

yet, 
Hath filched from her, but farthings and what 

pence 
Gleam, at the feet, of half-roused indolence ? 

Politics are man's method, to teach men 
Their duty, man-ward— past the savagery, 
The shark, the hawk, the lion and the wolf 
Are constant types of : since the primal law 
Seems, life, to craft and slaughter and may 

bear 
No gentler strictures; lagging reason comes, 



*HE REVOLT OF REASON. 13^ 

in aid of Nature, whom, she supplements, 
While, culture takes up stitches, Nature drops. 
Wliat right had savages, still, stringing shells 
On all the Ocean's beaches, in canoes, 
Skimming life's turbid inlets, to dispute 
Man's plea for ships? So, what, yet, bar- 
barous prince 
Had sat a throne, but, on its crumbling edge. 
Who treats his subjects' lives, as but one neck, 
To his raised cutlass ?— It has come to this: 
Autocracy is driven, home, to God; 
Or, tarries with pure reason. Greece, out- 
lawed, 
Th' assassin of fair honor, Time presents 
Her exiled, hemlocked, glorious sons, alike, 
The freedom of the Ages. 

His reputation, lost, what had he left, 

Crassus, or Croesus ?— but, with character. 

Self-murdered, he were poorer, to himself, 

By all, his ingots swore, his riches grew. 

Yet, a trivial lie may rake a character, 

From stem to stern, while sailing summer seas, 

Sunk, ere, advised, how. In common life, 

Character is the seal that certifies 

Man's bulk, dry measure, like the staple, corn. 

Whose value rises, with its scarcity; 

So, in a slave-mart, e'en, a slave shall fetch 

What gold, his character had weighed, if 

known. 
Yet, with what malice is that most beset, 
Wliich hath most honor? while, that, void of 

worth, 
Hath, scarce, an enemy? Who'll sully worth? 
Aye! from a mjT-iad throats— and yet the seal 
Of the most righteous God doth patent worth, 
Eusty, thro' lack of use. Of shameless greed. 
Men have been taught, a pennyweight of gold 
Outweighs a pound of brain, while, custom 

hath 
Sustained the notion; yet, gold, but, appears 
A jester, to occasion, that ma^^ oft, 
Amuse a royal master. Money, means 
The same, in morals, that it means, on 'Change* 
Adjusting men's transactions: so, a bond, 
Is solemn, not, for gold's sake, but, for man's. 
Whose honor, gold has vouched.— Tho' ques- 
tioned, true— 
A gentleman hath honor, in this world. 
His bullion, inconspicuous : such, a charm 



134 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

In true politeness, it is capital, 
Beyond, a million, sterling, and a churl, 
Wlience, to woo Fortune. 

Man manufactures all tlie light he hath, 
If, from the resinous knot, ere, candles were; 
Who, not, the product of himself— what, then? 
Yet, as the sovereign product of a sphere. 
He like its flora and its fauna, smacks, 
Of the 8oil and climate, whereto, incident. 
So, the unity of man, when, consummate. 
Shall not have changed the color of his skin. 
But, men's opinion of it : unity, 
Both, thine and mine, at peace. 

What Marshal snuffs the wind, his feathers 

raise. 
Whisking battalions, forward ? praise moves, 

late, 
To supplement success,, it should inspire. 
— Crecy and Agincourt are framed, in gold. 
To. look at, to, half, smile at ; if, for tears. 
For tears, dead valor waits for, by whose 

grave, 
Brambles, yet, eyelash her long innocent sleep. 
Blenheim's a peal of thunder, down the lines 
Of Europe, t' affright, back, to their stalls. 
Her snorting chargers : Waterloo concludes 
The purpose of her States, in what o'ertakes 
A man, who mapped her, over. War, not, one. 
With reason, must be murder ; yet, a hair, 
If, honor's, hath the sleight, to wheel a gun, 
A dragon had, not budged. Lives there a 

man 
Who dares if, even, to liimself, concede, 
His honor, stands impeached? there falls a 

blot 
E'en, from the shadow of suspicion, foul. 
Black, as a feather, from a raven's wing. 
Forever, where, it falls— and on this spot, 
IMen's eyes shall fix and must, as, if, some spell 
Did rivet all eyes, there. 

— Tho' York and Lancaster fought thirty years. 
They sheathed their broadswords to a nuptial 

smack ; 
While, the bride's nosegay, blushed with the 

best blood, 
From rivers of it, England's : such is war. 
That,, but postpones, th' arbitrament, or, kiss. 
All warfare leads to, tho' it spurn them both. 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 135 

War, as an argument, is, never, done. 

Still, in the maddening logic of defeat, 

Would seek the premises of victory: 

Thermopylae, tho', lost, thus, later, won 

Platea, and confided Greece, to Greece. 

The field, tho', oft, the purchase of tried steel. 

Is, oftener, of the charge, that holds its breath : 

Mars' confidence affects, the soldier's nerve, 

A woman shakes, a host electrifies. 

—Peace proves, too dear, ere, all the blood be 

let, 
That feeds the ulcer, war had, laH;ely, probed. 
Thus, power to hold an unclinched conquest, 

fast. 
Must spill more blood, than, shed, to humble it. 
Peace, by her exit, from the frugal hearth, 
Hath left it, bare ; for her, no substitute : 
So if, a State, but, burnishes its arms. 
For re-engagement, in brief intervals 
Of war,— what peace? 'twere like a breathing 

spell, 
To gladiators, faint. The queen of flowers. 
Peace must, as, had a lily, choke the air 
With perfume, till perforce, all nostrils yield. 
Ere, peace is come, to re-imburse the State 
For treasure sunk, in war.— What now excites 
Amazement, is a bullet, since the wounds, 
It makes, all nations medicate, with th' lint, 
Of common offices : compassion, that. 
Of all man's newels, flawless. 
—Power, when, not thought, is power's apology. 
Absolute Power were Eeason, with her Court, 
In th' ante-chamber of the Infinite. 
—Man made environment, who, still, a man 
'Twere, his, to, well, undo it : once, observe, 
How, reason tears, in tatters, ba;ttle flags, 
She, late, fought under, bravely, and erects 
New ensigns, to fresh leadership— which means 
Eeason is bred, to arms, intends to fight 
Untreasonable battles, till this globe 
Moves, to her bugles, cheerly.— Everything 
Of Nature had, is man's, he, so alarmed 
At peership, with her atoms, without wing, 
Who sails past Sirius : let him, freely, ask— 
What has man done, man may not, better, do ? 
The world, if, often, wrong, is, oftener, right. 
Is, seldom, wilful, in the offices 
Of censor, first, of headsman, afterwards, 
And, when, dishonest, learns to blush, wherein, 
^till, thro' a cloud of missiles, one must pass. 



136 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

E'en, thro' a slough of envy, he may wade 
To man's idolatry.— Enigmatical ? 
Genius is man, provoked, to do his best, 
In arts, in arms, in painting, sculpture, song; 
While, in sparse instances, 'tis manifest, 
That, man hath done it— how is seldom clear. 
Yet, in her absence, oft, a madman's freaks 
Are blazoned— genius, a profound mistake, 
Perceived, on her return. Time is not bound. 
Him, men may spurn, to recognise, anon, 
A genius, to such proof as proves him, none. 
Genius bows not t' opinion— it, a force 
That makes opinion, while, despite himself, 
Man hath a master. Genius is no knot, 
Eequired, a century to, half, untie; 
Is not a sphinx, to tantalize an Age; 
By speech, the clearest, frankest, manliest 

man's— 
The sum, the soul, the marrow, of life, lived. 

Men have no warrant to anticipate 

Their action, who succeed them : life is theirs 

Born to it, absolute; and on this fact. 

No emphasis, too startling, may be laid. 

Man is a valorous thinker, on the verge 

Of his exasperation, and, betimes, 

The earth, itself, doth quake, to words, he 

saith. 
Censorious world, yet, prompt, to make 

amends, 
Wisdom shall suffer nothing, at thy hands, 
But, unadvised haste. 

— Whate'er, the reason of an Age, accepts. 
Is his authority, born to that Age— 
Who may decline, or, not, that, gone before 
Take issue, only, with the world, on what 
Is worth a quarrel— readily, conform 
In shoes, in waistcoats, in small beer, thereto 
Open thy set, undisputatious lips, 
O Silence, to this waiting argument, 
Man must be free, the only fact, that man 
Hath staked his life on. 

The earth presents a Forum, where, but, late, 
A Camp of Mars, wherein, who, wisely, speaks 
AU ears attend him. The experiment 
Is making, if, to broadswords, or, to brain. 
Appeal shall, hence, be made— if, possible. 
To arm a State, toward others, yet, defend 
Itself, thro' even justice; brotherhood. 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 137 

Hitherto, written, but, in polar frost. 
In wait, for all men's hearts. 

Men do things, that belittle them, but, thooight 
Hath built man, godlike; he, with plenteous 

light, 
If, he, but, use it, to out-mariner 
Historic voyaging, by fabulous stars. 
Sweat is the epic, Homer could not sing. 
In semi-barbarous ears ; nor, Virgil when 
Augustan glories poured down Latium's skies. 
The gordian knot, of Alexander, cut, 
Had baulked untying, till his head were white. 
To the unmanly task— and one hour, lost, 
Had sullied Alexander. 

Thought puts to sea, in gny craft, at one. 
With man and Nature; sails, along, intact. 
The Ages convoys to this Admiral, 
Or, sunken prizes : thought, for aliment, 
Eiots, on war, on famine, crunches all 
The garbage of the Ages— in th' event 
Master of sequence.— Yet, invincible. 
What reason is— who knows, may rise and tell, 
Since, reason, altho' man's, may be, of God ; 
Who^ w^ell, may kindle reason, from a torch, 
Let down th' infinite stairway, where, He will. 
No beacon, but, his brain, itself, on fire, 
Has signalized man's seamanship, in keels 
l*]0Aving all waters.— But, to m.an as knoAvn, 
Man's obligations bind him, who, on man 
As a conjecture, he may turn his back. 
—The emancipation of the mind, tho' first. 
Of all man's triumphs, shall prove, last, in 

time. 
Whence, common brotherhood, in common 

aims; 
Man, in the many, man, to be conserved ; 
With altruistic throbs of righteousness. 
In quondam cowards' hearts. 

Galileo Galilei vomits up. 

To pains, inquisitorial, gravity— 

Which man has swallowed, frankly; which, 

the Church 
Infallible, had burnt, had she known, how. 
With a world, docile, at her hitching post, 
To mount and ride, when, she adjusts her 

spurs. 
From th' earth, as th' centre of th' universe 



138 A MAMJNIAL ONLY. 

Have sprung, still, thrive— more errors, to 

correct, 
Than, from all sources, else.— Eeligion hath 
Consigned man's stomach to the griping pangs 
Of mortal hunger ; to the lash, his back ; 
Hath the smooth current of his life, involved 
In foaming vortices— yet, for himself, 
T' achieve his rank,, in Nature, and to feel 
His way, by intuition, man seems, born : 
The conquest, by his reason, of whose fears 
Hath published man, the autocrat, who waits 
The goldsmith's final touches, on his crown. 
The earth is man's who flourishes to-day, 
Not, his, of forty centuries, ago : 
He hath the right to sweep it, who is born, 
To the entail, and venerable filth, 
Cast in the anxious flame : 'tis reason's turn 
To seize the earth and farm it out, to men. 
Our fathers were our sires and were not Gods, 
The Lares and Penates are, no more. 
Man's fortunes, mortal, welded, to the sphere, 
A proposition, for re-argument. 
Were every custom, creed, or pleasure, man's. 
The rich shall not be hated, in that, rich ; 
The poor shall not be slighted, in that, poor ; 
With purer morals, better manners, man's, 
In the blest Age, when Season shall take 

breath. 
In her pursuit of gold.— Already, wealth, 
Of bulk, enormous, incident to life. 
In current Ages, is debating, how% 
To, best, conserve man's welfare : yet, the task 
How, well to serve man, thro' ancestral gold, 
Or,, with gold, won, of industry, appears 
Far more perplexing, than, how, gold, to get. 
And vault it, against loss— since, charity 
Hath blundered, often, and may blunder, 

hence. 
Her purpose, man's, her benefaction, not. 
Thus, th' concern of wealth, is, how the bank 
Of charity, may pay vast dividends. 
With a surplus, against famine, in its vaults. 

The test of every cultus should be— how 
It deals with life, itself,— against it, false. 
If for its culture, true. To desecrate 
The sanctity of Nature, to impugn 
Her honesty are postulates, absurd, 
Of Superstition, seized on, to enslave 
]VIan's budding reason : Nature, a mistake 



THE REVOLT OP REASON. 139 

Is man's prodigious lie. No fact, so clear— 
What, men may, even, die for, may prove that 
The most remote, from reason— since, belief 
Proves, neither, sanity, nor, reason, man's; 
Whose actions so partake of sanity. 
He is not adjudged, mad. Yet, scarce a heart 
Betrays its idol : to what, each loves best, 
Eesponse, were, mystic, as, an oracle's. 
Dispel man's superstition and his load. 
Of poverty, goes with it ; penury 
Hath, scarce, a blood relation, not, thereof. 
Poverty had not been, or, not,, a stat^. 
Men seem, as, born to— but, for piety 
Mstaking avarice, for Heaven's decree. 
Hath Heaven, for ignorance, a broader door 
Than, e'en, the door, flung, wide, to poverty? 
For penury, less stress, on blessings, hence, 
With sharp demand, for rights, denied her 

here. 
His, life, beyond, man shall find methods 

there, 
How, to conserve it, he could not take hence 
Preach to the poor, more bread, for potter' 

fields ; 
No dogma, like a loaf, it, providence, 
So clear, to life, so hungry— hope, if, sweet 
Served up, to a full stomach. 

Man's, notliing, on the earth, but, man, for. 

fear, 
Fear, if, his, first mistake, hope seems his last ; 
Neither becomes him : life is in the act. 
Of doing, or, of suffering this, or, that. 
In th' instant, glorious : feathers, not, so light 
As expectations, founded, upon hope, 
Hope, simply, hope— not, reason, with a train 
Of logical surprises, yet, to be. 
—It doth not cheapen life, to learn its worth 
If, Heaven and Hell are not, man's, were a 

smile. 
His, not, a shriek of pain, as the joint mj^th 
Sinks dowm oblivion. With the pain of loss 
The world's heart doth not fail, at some man' 

death, 
Still, throbbing for the many, who survive : 
Death, but, a common incident, whose force 
Is balanced, as a factor, in new life. 
Better, equipt and mounted : no men, yet. 
Of whom, it has been written, Tliey were Gods 
Or, written, were not, false. 



140 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

—Fear, in an interjection sliot between 

Man's lips, entreats God's services, wlien, foes 

Do press him, sorely; tho', to evidence, 

He, in the jungle, with the lion, met; 

Or in the foundering ship, finds providence 

Impersonal as law is— in himself, 

Or, not, a special providence appears. 

God is not guarding dykes, lest some give way 

Nor moles,, lest undermined : make each, secure 

To natural law, or perish, as men do. 

To negligence— transfigured, providence. 

Yet when, on th' earth a providence, wherein 

It contravened, or strained a cosmic law ? 

God, by what names, men will— by none, were 

God: 
No name concludes Him, who inscrutable, 
Of silence, heeds the sacrifice, that speech 
May fail to offer. 

Death's, not, a single trapping, it were well : 
E'en, were the fact ignored, no monuments 
To mark its devastation, palpable, 
Beyond, the pang of loss, Time, gently, heals 
Death hath such prominence and fashion pays 
Such court, to bier, to pomp, to sculptured 

stone. 
It proves the head-spring of an affluent. 
The chief, in penury : 'tis barbarous, 
Much advertisement, of the fact, of death. 
The certainty of death disterrors death, 
Wliose pang, if, felt is instant: death, for all 
Is as balsamic, as the resinous firs. 
Of wholesome Norway.— Why not, once, reflect, 
That, th' dead themselves, have no concern, 

with death, 
Tho' lacerated hearts would, fain, accept 
What cordials, fancy proffers their distress, 
Th' occasion, past, recovered strength declines 
As, on the maxims of experience. 
Reason reclines her head and dries her tears. 
What flatters man, the most, men would be- 
lieve ; 
Yet, not, conviction, nor, belief, that makes 
One's dying, grateful— it is Nature's skill. 
In anesthetics. 

'Tis Plato's dream revised, 'tis notliing, more, 
The hideous incarnations of the East, 
His inspiration : from man's ignorance 
Of matter, sprang the fiction of a soul— 



THE REVOLT OP REASON. 141 

It, not the body, nor a part, thereof, 

That, like a skilled musician, touched the keys 

Of every organ into harmony : 

Itself, innnortal as th' Immortal Gods. 

What stretch, between a Kaffir's and the skull 

Socrates dwelt ia? Socrates, tho', dead. 

Seems but a lion, dead— while, zealously, 

The heavenly thinker and the vicious brute 

Had plied the bellows of life's forge, alike,. 

To aims, divergent. 

Birth, marriage, death, as the three cardinal 

facts, 
Of man's existence, should eschew, alike 
All vulgar ostentation : love, alone. 
Hath, here, to prove her tender offices 
As if, gold had not been— and emphasise 
Liile, by its heart-throbs, not, its accidents. 

Woman has come of liberty of thought, 
Much, as her consort, man hath— each to each 
The other's complement : archaic tales 
Framing few pictures of rare womanhood. 
Tho' on his gender, em.phasis be laid, 
Since, it is man and woman, and not, man, 
Singly, the earth revolves for— let us hope 
From wedlock, cleaner loins, as from a tie, 
Woven, of passion, dyed, in all the hues 
Of conjugal delight— not, some frail bond, 
Tho' lawful, with no fibre, put to th' test, 
Of life's misfortunes and seductions too. 

Man hath his complement of ribs complete; 
WhUe, woman blooms, no more, a part of him : 
Distinct, as Venus and as Saturn are. 
With duties, several, as these planets have ; 
With occupations, common— yet, whose sex 
May, at the peril, of dead wombs accept. 
Is man's and woman's equal fellowship. 
Man, consummate, in woman, she in man. 
Props marriage, firmly, against argument 
Destructive, of that oneness, whence, imbibe 
Both sons and daughters, filial reverence. 
Yet, marriage is a contract, nothing else, 
Sacred, to love and to the pledges, hers. 
—Pluto and Proserpine, whenever, met, 
Assure the hell, their wont, to kindle up, 
Th' occasion, trivial : where, else, proper hell. 
But in the fancy of the rhapsodist, 



142 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

If, not in wedlock? Where, else, proper 
heaven ? 

A mother, sister, daughter and a wife 
Are notes of music sung, by every tongue ; 
Nor, had a prima donna sweetened them. 
Thro' cultured execution to the ear 
OX common life, that, to its native airs 
Trills them, to care, a feather, or, to toU,, 
With stifEenuig thews, incited, to toil on. 

True men and women seek for yet more love 
Who well esteem our English heir-loom, home 
That holy spot, the axis of this world. 
Home, a state sacred and all spires may fall 
Willie, still, were safe within its sanctities. 
Charities, broader, than, they advertised. 
The red-breast, to the Tropics, trills no lay ; 
An exile, from his home, in Northern climes 
He waits the vernal welcome to return 
To his deserted hearth-stone, and to love, 
Revoice her praises, wed and multiply. 
So, Love hath her own habitat : beyond 
Her cherished home, the song dies on her lips, 
Her cheeks do pale, while, the persistent skies 
Fail to look lovely. 

—What, virtuous love has done, is doing yet, 
Proves the best half of history; the worst 
The scandals, in her name. Fortunate man. 
Who learns the key of wedlock is to treat 
Love, as, still, young, as, ever, in her bloom 
When, fading to much fruitage, worn and 

wan : 
Love, woman's sceptre, thus, compels the nod 
Of Jove, a Tonans, or, a Fluvius. 
—A woman's loveliness should be the fact, 
She is a woman, simply ; yet, alas ! 
A woman is the worst enigma, man's. 
Or, woman's either ; since, the fact of sex 
Proves her capacity for motherhood, 
Yet, flatly, baulks thereat. 

—Gold hath the art. 
To argue Beauty from his manly troth. 
Whose purse is empty, rifled, or misspent. 
Love spies a golden bough, alights thereon. 
There, plumes her wings, thence trills her 

amorous la^'s ; 
To some, the warbling, sweeter, than her wont. 
Ah ! shall we sigh for man, or rail, ai him, 
Gold, thou, ungodly god, men, so revere? 



THE REVOLT OP REASON. 143 

—What, beauty's power, 
We see, we feel, confess, armed, cap-a-pie 
Who, face to face, surrender : not, a rose. 
But wakes our pity, it must fade, so soon, 
And stirs us to its rescue— if by steel 
To pierce the stealthy frost. Wliat, a rebuke 
From beauty's self, were righteousness, com 

plete, 
Seen, blushing, in her tingling puberty ? 
—Beauty hath offices, love vows are hers 
Aside, from th' vantage, sight doth occupy, 
For passionate glances : not, for the scent, 

alone, 
But, half, to feel them, flowers seduce the ey 
E'en, melt the frozen heart : thus, in the eye. 
Of Helen, if men stare, it doth not seem 
They e'er descried a penny's worth therein. 
The wound that pained Achilles, was no stroke 
Hector dealt him, but when Patrocles fell, 
Achilles, too, was slain : friendship, betimes. 
Is what, love, ever is— two, almost one, 
Wherein, not. one, but, mathematical. 
—Love proffers love, a heart so sensitive 
An insect's wing had cast a shadow there. 
Huge, as th' eclipsing moon's, on the sun's face 
Love, that withholds from love, what, love 

would know 
Has suicided, to the fact, of life. 
Wherein, two lives were lately, sweetly one. 
Beauty so stirs the senses, five go mad 
To do her homage and what syllables 
Fall from the lips, fall, half, articulate. 
Young life is such a tongue-tied scarlet dunce 
Kissed, slyly, by life's captor— beauty, yet. 
Nor, with her blushes, ripe, nor with a taste 
The Eavor of all excellence, in the fruit 
Hearts, daily, pant for. 

—To bolt bitter grapes 
To legal manacles, lockt, daily, on 
A venal wrist, is a stale compliment 
Paid, to the loveliest name, a woman bears 
Till, merged into a sweeter holier one. 
Yet, hath young love time's glib apology 
For frequent misadventures, for oft falls 
With th' balsam of sweet hope, poured in each 

wound. 
Sovereignty has been crowned, within man's 

heart, 
With autocratic jewels, in each drop 
Of staunch, puissant blood, a maid, or wife 



144 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Hath vouched her fair renown for : loyalty 
Is love's own earmark, always, visible^ 
Thro' all erasures : how, to well obey, 
Is love's first query, as, is soldiership's. 

It seems a woman's privilege, to treat 
Man, as her debtor, whom, she honors, most. 
Oft, spurring him to payment : man reflects- 
Woman is his dear mother, his sweet wife, 
His self -upbraiding sister, to his spleen. 
So, doth confess a debt, he had not paid, 
But for such tender statutes.— Womanhood 
Takes ship with Chastity, in a fra^l craft, 
To cross Biscayan waters, yet, makes port. 
Despite men's jeers, who thought, to see her 

sink. 
Not, always, manly in love, sexual. 
That makes, or mars man, yet to man's renown 
He doth adore a woman and, wherein. 
Bestial, to woman, is, not, man, at all. 

Love, bred, to sunshine, trembles in the dark 
Famed for stilettoes, sheathed in chastity— 
Too brave to make surrender : who dare die 
So, bravely, as a woman, when, she would ? 
Yet, love will, often, argue with herself 
A problem, fatal, argued— innocent 
As, love's first blush itself, left, to resolve 
Sweetly, to continence. Lust may be love 
Turned into poison, with no flavor, thence, 
Of that sweet wine— of men and women, drank, 
Unheadached, to more thirst. 

To a per Averted woman, death, itself, 

A cruel reformation, seems her, best ; 

Thus, what a moral, in depravity. 

Wherein, a woman's? Innocent and sweet. 

She was, whose lewdness is the mouth of hell : 

She to the fact of sex, a woman, still, 

So hideous, by the virtues, she has lost, 

And lives, to not regret ; a spectacle, 

Vice, in men, most depraved, had shuddered at. 

—A heart and with no image, there, of one 

She loves or hath loved, were not woman's 

heart : 
She, loveless, masculine— whose sex, alone, 
Hath, in itself, no pledge of womanhood. 

Woman would have that reckoning, with man 
So long denied her, on th' popular plea 



THE RETOLT OF REASON. 145 

Of wife or mother ; as, if, motherhood 

Or, wifehood, either, could give countenance 

To a false ledger ? All, she craves of man 

Is, that, the balance may be, fairly, struck. 

More womanhood were woman's policy, 

In, more, a woman, than, she ever was : 

Equality of sexes, in the fact, 

A man and woman are, distinctly, such ; 

All oneness in two equal hemispheres. 

Yet, hath a woman, the same rights, as man 

Hers, the election, to assert them all. 

Or, to refrain from those, whose exercise, 

Might shiver honest hearth-stones— tho' the lin 

Dividing man and woman, be, like that, 

In mathematics, quite, impalpable. 

No woman argues, she would be a man. 

Who is a woman— in a manlier man, 

Tlie inspiratioBj of her womanhood. 

As, beast and bird both honored sexual love, 

With jealous reverence, ere the lecherous mar 

Debated sexual constancy— the tie 

Of single marriage, doth legitimate 

Love, in the earth and sky— exceptions, few 

To proof, that Nature spread the nuptial bei 

And to its stainless sheets, escorted Love. 

Chastity wins no laurels, save, wherein. 

The better, of temptation, notably. 

A woman's honor, breathed on, of men's lips 

Were stained, albeit, stainless. Yet it seems, 

A woman's honor, priceless, hath a price, 

As, custom urges : against Chastity, 

No weapon, but, were laid, till woman drops 

The shield of her pure thoughts, to toy, awhile 

With capering lust, in an Apollo, shrined. 

A woman, made, if, of a woman's dregs 
Were, but, a stale decoction ; nothing, there. 
Of th' innocent flavor of her maidenhood. 

—Kisses drip 
Their honey, o'er love's wounds, so artfully, 
They gape for medication : by retreat 
From the world's stare, thrives virtue, brave to 

wed 
Th' espoused earth, her orbit, liberty. 
—Ah ! what so SAveet as is a maiden's blush. 
Unless the kiss that seals her lover's own, 
When troth is plighted? Ha! love'*?, thrice 

as sweet 



146 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

As from the windward ol distress, is slied 
Odors, o'er Junes aromas, eminent, 
To bottle,, sealed, against adversity. 

Love, ever, seeks tor love a crucial test, 
That blends two blushes, or one blush shall 

mar ; 
Proves, by two kisses, if, one kiss defiles. 
Remitting speech, to silence, silence speaks 
Love hath so, often, felt, what words are 

worth, 
Dissects a smile, evaporating tears. 
Till a brisk, cleansing shower has purged her 

bed. 

—Who, in the morning, weds, 
Elects a rose, whereof, no perverse wind 
Apprises him its scent has wantoned free, 
In th' nostrils of dislionor : love, at noon, 
Hath doubtful warrant of the passionate God- 
But, what, on th' verge oi manhood? Well-a- 

day! 
— Wliat venal gossips be the sighing winds. 
What sorcery, in moonbeams? Aye, wha 

shame 
From Sappho, downward, scarlet, from the 

bays. 
Fanning the brow of Venus, cold as ice. 
That locks the poles, if, love, be, but, a fact 
Of merchandise and not, that oracle. 
Whose priestess, Nature, to no lapses, errs ; 
Who, of no bribe, were, false, to honesty ? 
—As, if, the glorious cordial, labelled Love, 
Must sour, in musty phials, till the leech 
Uncorks them, to perverted appetite ? 
Love is that secret, broken to the heart 
In th' dewey dawn— yet, not till mid-day 

scents 
The air with frank confession : love, a dream 
Buds into passion ; thence, to early fruit. 
Blushing with laden boughs to the four winda 
Of duty, sweet allegiance, charity, 
With all-o'er coming chastity, to clinch 
Love's tendrils, climbing— for there be no 

height 
Love may not challenge, and no soil's too thin 
For love to thrive in. 

—A woman's heart has been a Caesar's prize— 
If, to another Caesar, it were, • still, 
A prize to capture and, therewith, to treat 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 147 

For terms, of non-abasing servitude. 
If, no explosive in a magazine 
As fatal, as the mischief, from her heart, 
So, if no serpent, with her subtlety, 
When, woman would be vile— her argument 
For life is braver, than man, ever, makes 
In her supreme endurance ; in her loss 
That had remitted sins, the grace of God 
Had looked askance at : to whose purity. 
The priceless jewel, of all womanhood, 
Man's coarser passions, so refine themselves. 
Till what, in man, is manly, lovable, 
Hath woman's seal on. 

Two drops of water are not two drops, still. 
When they have met together and so, love 
Doth unify a man's and v/oman's flesh. 
Whereon, the State stands, squarely ; to the 

lair, 
Or, to the nest, appeal is, never, made 
For plural marriage— there, the law's divine, 
One male shall with one female, sweetly, wed. 

Love, strikes, like lightning, always, when it 

strikes ; 
Where, it may strike, who knows, ere, it hath 

struck ? 
Such pranks, it plays with hearts, no sophistry 
Hath, yet, been able to convince a heart, 
What a mistake, it makes, to love, amiss ; 
Since voluntary love's a counterfeit 
Of th' ringing coin, so rare, its price rules high, 
With numismatics. 

—Commerce seeks a port 
Within the harbor of a woman's heart, 
Wliere, ride, at anchor, gallant merchantmen. 
Unlading to her love : a woman's heart 
Is the one theme, tho' hackneyed, ever, new 
Whose simile, is, best, astronomy, 
A science, never, done. 

— Wliy should the stigma rest on woman, yet 
That, in the first of women, she first sinned. 
And, then, enticed her spouse to share her sin ?i 
Why cast in woman's teeth, the fact of death 
The cause of all life's woes, late, popular ? 
Or, e'en to patronize her as— the sex. 
In that, she is a woman— she, to man. 
The immediate Source, he sprang from ?— Let' 

have done, 
With the perplexing fable and kiss her, 



148 , A MAMMAL ONLY. 

The tempted— not, the tempter. 

— Lfove ie a sweet emotion to a smile, 

Or, a caress, responsive : love, tlie wiglit 

That empties ail tlie treasures of two hearts ; 

Each, gently, in the other, and withdraws 

Scarlet, as having done some foolish ac". 

Love wantons, when, estraying, from the heart, 

To take the lusty senses, in her arms ; 

That nameless charm, dispelled, from th' netlier 

heaven 
Love peoples, with her saints, in spotless white. 

—Love, her mistake. 
If, harder, to correct, than, to endure, 
May veil her wound, behind a radiant smile : 
Yet, th' heart is, quite, untravelled, that main- 
tains 
It cannot love anotlier, having loved. 
—Life witJi its habits, fixt, Love undertakes 
Too much, would she reform it, after troth, 
Is plighted and vows said : repentance comes 
To the crushed heart, too late, that, to a pledge 
Of reformation, or to ardent hope, 
Love may heal other lapses, than, love's own, 
Ventures, on wedlock. 

—Woman hoped 
From Greece a^nd Eome, for parity, with man, 
Who, scarcely, in the Orient, looked beyond, 
A hlorizon of traffic in her flesh. 
As, in a camel's. Nomad womanhood 
Was woman, semi-barbarous, her arm 
What strength, her lazy liege lacked in his own, 
Or, feigned to lack, therein ; her chastity, 
His, to augment his herds with— his, much 

wived 
To cast aside to his satiety. 
A woman, wed, the peer of many wives ; 
To some bond-woman, comelier, scarce, a peer. 
A theocratic marriage ran the Jew's, 
When woman drew the watetr for her lord. 
To bathe his feet with ot to slake his thirst ; 
Who, having browsed Ms camels, watered them, 
Her duty, gently, done.— Not woman, thus, 
As, th' nomad bred her, when the Eoman had 
Imprest his manlier virtues on mankind. 
Producing Eoman matrons, of whose fame, 
Time shall not sicken. So, was woman stirred 
To aspiration, by the force of Eome, 
In womanless Judea, that inspired 
Woman, with zeal for man's companionship. 
Ere, had the gentle Christ permitted her 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 149 

Tlie common bliss of heaven. 

—Christ gave audience, 
With leave t' repent, a woman, who had 

sinned— 
How, could tliis be, yet, stones, to cast at her, 
So plenty, im Judea? Manifest, 
Woman had, but, the privilege, to be. 
Aside, from pious cant, in Israel : 
Her terms of life, man's own. Chiist if, he 

spake 
To Magdalene, bidding her, take heart, 
Spake, with a whiff, from p^agan Greece or 

Rome 
Fresh, in his nostrils— tho' the pity, his. 
His, the compassion, who found woman, chained, 
And dropt his tears upon her manacles. 
Israel, tho', theocratic, to one God, 
To many, Eg5T)t— yet, the Egyptian held 
Woman, in honor, for her sex, itself ; 
For worth, exceptional, Hebraic pens, 
Surprised, may laud a woman— of whose sex. 
Of all, in myth, or, story, emineiut. 
Found, in Chaldaic-Hebrew chronicles. 
The fingers of two hands were, in excess. 
Six thousand years ago, along the Nile, 
Woman was queen within the realm of love. 
The knelt Egyptian vowed, whate'er, he had, 
Or, might have, thence, all, for her love to 

yield : 
To forfeit all, to honest wedlock, false ; 
While, he exchanged his own, for her sweet 

name. 
But, when the Arab vented Egypt, scorn 
For that witliin her lovable and true, 
Woman fell inider him, a slave, and there 
She lies, impassive, yet. Woman is not 
An outcome of Christianity, of brains, 
When, voted to man's side : in all time past, 
Culture and brains, where, wanting, woman 

fell. 

The Zend-Avesta shuts the maid, in hell. 

E'en, to the resurrection, who declines 

At eighteen years, to wed ; woman, therein, 

A wife or felon. Zoroaster, still, 

Hath staunch supporters : the God Eros thrives, 

Tho' Hjmien suggests hell, to wedlock, man's, 

Or, woman's, denied love. 

—Fidelity in marriage, seldom, springs, 

Of infidelity, in pairing tLme ; 



150 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Of wedlock, had againet tlie grain of love : 
No, less, absurd, in man, than, in the wren, 
Or, turtle, to wed, falsely. 
—Love is the single obstacle, that gold 
Hath not surmounted : if, so competent 
To eolemnize the nuptials of two hands. 
Two distant hearts, unwed— 'tis, yet, so vain. 
As, to believe, that golden links had held 
Hearts, restive, back from shame. All that's 

divine 
In wedlock, must be love ; love, absent, then, 
Marriage, the flippant lie, so, often heard, 
Eepeated, at the altar : home must be 
A word, with pathois in it, to his ear. 
And hers who founded it, and have, therein. 
Cradled, a pledge of peace. Tho', love may not, 
A child shall read the human heart, aright. 
And where, it finds a bed of daffodils 
There it shall, sweetly, nestle : innocence 
Is like the sounding lead, that with the ooze 
Of the deep sea enchants philosophy. 
The quality of man's and woman's love 
Lies in endurance ; in the strain, it bears, 
As, honest metal had. Passion may crown. 
But, prudence and discretion prop the throne 
Of common wedlock : wed, who live, to love. 
Shall love to live, and had not, otherwise. 
Yet, love is but half, sentiment and half. 
Hard rigorous logic, that must, day by day. 
Argue, how many footfalls, how much sweat. 
How many strokes, by a brave, brawny, arm. 
Material comfort may exact from him. 
Who, his, a wife, with sons and daughters, his. 
Why, should Love on her bridal lavish, more, 
Than on her larder and for Fashion's sake, 
Endure a querulous stomach ? Love, with 

bread. 
Is, far, less vulgar, than, pretention seems, 
In that world's captious eye, half, the world 

lives 
'T attract, to please, to captivate, to win. 
—Christendom, tho' the soil of womanhood, 
Woman's, the flower, of public liberty. 

—The power of prayer seems to the pious East 

In frequent iteration : thus the Jew 

Prayed, often, and prayed, long— and still, the 

East 
Prone, to her gods and constant, in her prayers. 
Thro' a breath-saving trick, the piety 



THE REVOLT OF EEASON. 151 

Of runuing water, hath tlieology 
Concluded, by the ablest water-wheel. 
—Such liglit, has Asia slied on human weal, 
Salvation to a tliird of all men, born, 
Is to repeat— OM-MANU-PADUA-HUM. 
One-third of man drones i,n the Bo-tree's shade, 
One-third bends toward Mecca : of the rest, 
Some scale the skies with ladders of their own, 
While, others are resolved, to wait for God. 
All Veaas are, alike, the work of man : 
"Wherein, inspired, of genius : which is, best ? 
That cult, a man is born to, tho', the worst. 
Restore the pillory and stand, therein, 
Daily, the dreamy anchorite, whose God 
Must wait, to scourge, not, bless, his indolence : 
Idleness, hell to any subterfuge 
Of stranded sanctity, dead, to that Sea, 
Lii^fe rides with steadfast helm. Eeason suspects 
The earth is her true habitat and crowns 
Herself, its master ; conscious, she is weak, 
Yet, with no regent\, pending infancy, 
She gropes her way to fitness, absolute. 
—When drones fulfil their office, drones are 

slain. 
Indolence denied favor : anchorites, 
Dead to this life, interred, had spared man's 

crib. 
God is not charmed with one, of all the stripes. 
Men hope to enter heaven by— as, if, welts. 
Thick, on a sluggard's back, were evidence 
Of righteous living ?— To interpret God, 
Make not, of Him, the Monster, man had been 
If, made a God of : assume that, divine. 
Which starts with reason, but outstrips her, 

soon. 
Thence, unattended. 

—Light abrogates all treaties, made in th' dark 
Break with Tradition and shake hands, with 

man : 
A sweeter song is on the lips of men. 
Than, life to mortify, 'tis life to heal. 
Why, any hateful secret, in man's past. 
He must pry into, to exonerate 
His life, from future pangs— so manifest, 
Man is, but, mortal— lack of diligence, 
In life's vocation, whose peculiar crime? 
No soul, to save, concludes the joys of heaven ; 
No soul, to damn, had quenctied the tires of hell. 
Man is not standing at the Gate of Heaven, 
Searching his pocket, for the obolus, 



152 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Of his admfesion ; nor, at hell's broad gate, 
Wa,a, wrangling with tlie porter, wiiat, the 

bribe, 
Had shut denial, on the curse of God, 
Who had stood there, till, squalor, rags and 

tears 
"Were met with scowls and flings at either gate. 
—Death has no terrors : 'tis a pagan myth 
That armed death with a dart and conjured up 
When he doth launch it, nameless agonies. 
A world of courage— a world void of fear ; 
A world of courage— a world filled with joy ; 
A world of courage— a world filled with thrift ; 
A world of courage— a world filled with God. 
This planet, curst, man curst it ; man, if 

damned, 
His lips pronounced damnation. 
—How sweet the earth had been, how beautiful, 
Enjoyed, as Nature's bounty— not, with th' air 
Tainted of demons, said t' inhabit it : 
Nor, its rich herbage, withering to the curse 
Of an angry Deity ?— for to such straits 
Man's lack of reason drove him, to account 
For evil, man's own product, as to liimself : 
Since, man's, the passions of the tiger cat, 
More reason, his, to curb tiiem : what m found 
Mysterious, in man's nature ?— that, he tliinks 
Profounder, than a dog dotli ; who, made o'er. 
To th' pattern of pure reason, had dismissed 
All damned superstition, utterly. 
—In the near view of death, Nature dissolves 
Th' enchantment of life, gently ; gives the will 
No longer, function; and both sinking mind 
And memory, cordials with forgetfulness, 
As, sweet and easy sleep reports to Deatli— 
He, with the o'erpeopling earth, full, in his eye, 
To slip his eager dart. 

—A human Christ is th' Christ of reason sought 
In, not, a pagan, nor, a mythic Christ. 
Christianity should drop her stilts and walk 
Human, in every peasant, born, to-day, 
Thus, to exalt her lowly origin : 
The spirit of whose etliics and good- will 
Has passed into the mass of common life, 
While, Organised Power Is left behind ; 
Christ, but the incident of ghostly sway, 
Without, a witness ; tho' the heart of man 
Throbs, with the Godlike Man of Galilee. 
A wave, like Fundy's, man's recovered sense 
Shall swamp, his trim delusions, in all seas. 



THE l^EVOLT OF REASON. 153 

Sailing as jocund feathers, ride the wiud, 

As, valorous hies, tlie sunbeams.— Man excels, 

But, to th' assumption, man transcends all facts 

Himself, tiie past, the present, the to be. 

A good man doth liis duty— lie is vile 

Who sliirk,8 his duty : herein, manliood's sign, 

And with aU togas, obsolete, the fact. 

Shall be, in vogue, forever. On that day 

E^ligion 's human, man shall grow divine : 

Dethroned fancy, thence, a farthingale 

May brandish, for a sceptre. 

O, for a flash 
Of Light, so common, all men had cried— God! 
So, clearly, revelation.— What is Light ? 
Who know, who think, they know ? That, by 

the sun. 
Such, an enigma ; that, from man's own brain, 
A series, of surprises ? 

—Hath man put on the boards, a drama yet, 
God, in his private box, had sat t' enjoy ? 
Nay, never, never, yet. So, in whiat kirk 
Or grave cathedral, odorous of myrrh, 
Its arches, strained to music, midst the pomp 
Of mitred prelates, hooded priests, with wax 
Flaming, to alleluiahs, hath God stood. 
Enraptured, of snch worship ? Where, a heart 
Is bursting He may hear each heart-string snap, 
With clear report, as, when, his heaviest guns 
Surprise man's slumbers— on whose auricle 
Sounds, rapturous music, to man's tympanum, 
i'all, flatly, silence. All, the argument 
For pomp is to impress man, thro' the eye ; 
The cost whereof, in alms, had worshipt God. 
Eeason has made confes<sion of what faults 
Have, half, dethroned her, since man's eyes 

have sunk 
His fortunes, deeper, than his treasure ships. 
Foundered, in mid-Atlantic. Wisdom, first, 
Must blindfold man, to teach him, how, to see : 
Who, wiith his eyes turned, inward, may remark 
Himself, within him, truly, there, complete ; 
Him, by th' natural eje, tho' entertained, 
As, man, but an illusion : thus, to know 
Man, were to gauge him, justly; siglit, no more, 
A factor in opinion, prompt, to turn 
Informer, against virtue : nor, man's eyes, 
Th' inviting doors, seductions enter by, 
To swerve him, to injustice, or to cheat 
His reason, of hei* mastership— thenceforth. 
To enervate the marrow of his bones. 



154 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

No faith, were kept between man's intellect 
And worn-out fables, or man's lechery, 
That gives each bestial instinct g-ilded sway, 
O'er starved and festering realmis. Th' Orient 

sleeps, 
And Europe may seize, gently, by the tail, 
The pious polecat, whisking, her, afar. 
'T escape infection— if impossible 
By any chemic art, of Europe, had 
To disinfect the East and draw her nigh. 
Europe as pagan and barbarian 
Has a tumultuous history, and, yet. 
The drama, with the Moslem— manifest 
An Arab, housed, who for the desert pines. 
Eorpie's a stiletto, while the Turk's a spear. 
Thrust, in the loins of Europe, half, withdrawn. 
Her Kin^s not such as in the Eeign of Faith, 
The garlic in whose breath, was of the toe 
That often damaged Europe's jewelry : 
But, wiser realms have seated wiser Kings 
Tolerant of tradition, to insure 
Its peaceful exit, to unmenaced tlirones. 
—Who were not brave 
If, -to a braver chief, whose continence, 
Conserves true courage, by evoking it, 
But, to his perilous need?— 0, what a realm 
O, what a throne, if common sense were King, 
If, common sense allegiance : each, so mad. 
So, shocked, at th' other's madness. 

—No decree, 
Flashed by gunpower, therefore, no renown 
Stood, on its oracles, hath history 
To sponsor it, to glory ; when, a crown 
Poisons his brow who wears it, till no leech 
Hath medication— down th' ancestral vault 
With what a thud, its record ? But, to teach 
A subject to revere him, to make room, 
Tn the King's heart, for all : rio jostling, there ; 
Do any starve, to ask, before he sleeps ; 
Shall any rise before me, to despair : 
Do any we«p, to silence, as they weep— 
T must bestir myself, nor, think, to sleep 
In th' midst of such alarms— that King had sat, 
To all kings' envy: by what masked door. 
Shall the assassin enter? So, what ear. 
Treason find, prickt ? 

The theory of Eurone, late, but faith, 
Tn her traditions, Europe hath revised. 
Statecraft appears the genius of the hour, 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 155 

Spring, whence, it may, revered. So faith 

herself 
Who crowned and uncrowned kings, has come 

at last, 
To play the jester, to king's armaments, 
With auspices, hailed, not, in the flight of 

birds. 
Nor, in a current pontifex ; her purse. 
To th' Hebrew's pledge of, oft, replenishment, 
To prov^ocation, war ; constrained, to peace, 
By the entreaties, of her industry, 
By the prosperity, of common life. 
That holds a king's crown on, and props his 

throne. 
'Tis physical geography that drains 
The purse of Europe : Nature may have made 
Her map for Common Empire, less concern 
For Nationalities, than cereals. 
In her economy— past dynasties 
Whose purpose striding, her autochthons seem 
Supreme, in theirs, while incidents of hers. 
An island, cleft, if by a frith, in twain. 
Were subject to geography, despite 
The legislation of five thousand years ; 
So boundless plains, no mountain hedgerows 

slice 
Into convenient pasturage, imply 
Much rivalry, in arms, to shepherd them. 
Wlio dare predict, what every prophet would. 
Guns, scoured of rust, shall be museumed yet, 
To beatific Ages, possible? 
Liberty is no abstruse theorem. 
To solve by mathematics ; is, alike. 
To all conditions, and is, always, life 
found, better, wiser, cleanlier, wealthier, hers 
Thau, when, another's— to which article 
Time hath subscribed; yet, wisely, adds 

thereto. 
No man is born, eo free, he may do wrong. 
Latin m gave laws to Europe and to man : 
Yet, by the Baltic and the Danube, sprang 
Tlie hardy vine, affecting Cliff and Crag, 
Natural, to life masculine, that buds. 
Prior to culture— yet, may cast much fruit 
To uncouth mammals, that foreshadow men 
To hopeful reason's virile tutorship. 
Europe, herself, imprisoned, charmed, with the 

vine, 
Trailed it, around her feudal palaces. 
Whence, it displays rich clusters, temptingly. 



156 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Sheltered, from Asia's scorn and Africa's. 
—Europe's growth 
Is, of the Eoman, in the Goth ; the last 
Eefining into culture, as, the lust 
For conquest, dies, in leisurely esteem, 
For hearthstones, sacred. 

Once, Scipio, arraigned, made no defense. 
But, bade the Eomans, to the Capitol, 
To offer thanks, to the Immortal Gods, 
Since, he, that day, just twenty years, ago, 
Met Hannibal and Carthage fell, to Eome : 
And thro' the cheers of Eome passed Scipio, 

quit. 
A brilliant exploit, by its eloquence. 
Thus, argues, down, what foibles, afterwards. 
Had soiled its lustre. 

—Fought, their first battle, horse and foot, alike 
May boast of courage— since yet maiden nerve 
Oft, stains a hero, with a coward's flight. 
Valor is courage made, historical. 
Think, of great Frederick spurring, in affright. 
From his first field, a field, victorious; 
Such, the slim promise, of performance, Ids. 
Stung, by the rowels of his father's hate. 
He made a kingdom, of what, Prussia was, 
By added soil and doubled polls and chinks 
The silver, in his pocket, he had left : 
Disdaining pomp, lived, of frugalitv 
Emulous, thence— and, thus, enriched his realm : 
Wound, in the linen, of his valet, dead— 
Of Europe's kings, who, greater ?— few, as great. 

Napoleon liberated thrones, he shook. 

In self-sustaining crowns, Europe shall sway 

Delighted realms— in th' breadth and width 

thereof, 
A brotherhood of men, not, brothers, born. 
But, dearer brothers, to their common weal 
When, with her gold, the Church shall servo 

the State, 
Who where she could not man destroy, hnth 

not, 
Where she could, wholly, ruin man, who h.g"' 
Whence, are the flaws no lapidary's eye 
Detects in Europe's jewels? whence, the b]o'>'' 
That stains her signets, but, of avarice. 
In the name of Him, uncovetous, whose or^^ 
Was thorns, whose throne, his sandals p 

men's hearts. 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 157 

His kingdom, or, no kingdom? 

—Fitness springs from responsibility ; 

Tho' 'his traditions palsy him, who sits 

Facing man, medieval, or, man, scaxed. 

As, Asia scared him : so such liberty 

Sprouts, by the Alps, or, Andes, native, there 

As, never, bloomed, on Asiatic soil. 

"Whence, whose, a bosom with reluctant joy, 

In resurrected Italy— her throne 

Squared, to the sabres that cemented her, 

Italian steel, whet by the rights of man ? 

She had a Senate in Mazzini's brain, 

In Garibaldi, rowels for the flanks 

Of lesser heroes— whence, Italia, whole 

As to Augustus.— Yet, within those walls 

Where, Caesar's and where, Pompey's triumph 

gleamed 
With the spoils of captured provinces, for 

Eome, 
The climax, of her marvels, ought to be 
A prodigy, of manliood, to the wand 
Of the arch-juggler freedom— to whose feats* 
The stones of Eome are sacred.— Liberty, 
While, not, a fact, of Eome, half, realized, 
Yet, she divined its purpose, in her laws. 
Which, as, she sank, she held, aloft, and flung 
To th' winds of heaven, to rescue, and they did. 
Italy's freedom lies, in Latium's scorn 
Of ghostly menace, first, tho' afterwards 
In reason, fulgent : liberty is like 
To running water— yet the man must thirst 
Who drinks, with zest, the sweetest rivulet 
The fact, of freedom is th<^ act, of light : 
Wherefore, more light— while, its extinguishers 
Be these incorporate fiends, for instant pains, 

Tho', Venice casts no jewel in the sea 

To wed the Adriatic, nor a quay 

Groans to her commerce, Venice is as sweet 

As, in her youthful spousals ; she, a wife 

With an unfaithful partner in the spouse. 

Whose vows sank down the deep, what time 

the waves 
Swampt the bride's dowry : acd, yet, liberty 
Seems, but, the glow-worm, of the Middle Age 
From Venice, to Genoa, as, her mate. 
Flashing love's signals. 

Thrice, in seven centuries, was Janus shut. 
War, late, man's occupation and is, yets 



158 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

With frecLuent truces to recover breath, 
Inspect and. furbish arms : true, as God lives 
The peace, of nations, bears no other sense, 
Than, readings for war. No plea, for lint, 
Albeit, were frozen, by— whose bayonet? 
Humanity is, broader, e'en, than, the lust 
Of power, or conquest : who had, even, said— 
Should dragons tight, let no leech dress their 

wounds- 
No pangs, too, sharp, too horrible for these, 
Nor, death, too instant?, 

Death doth not lay mao's purposes, to heart, 
Nor, ask men— what their pleasure : it is theirs, 
T' anticipate his ravages and salve 
Each wou)nd he deals and re-adjust their lives, 
To changed conditions. Tho', philosophy 
Muse, nibbing, oft, her pen; tho', faith, her 

hands 
May wring, unduly— let u^s sing, of death, 
As, if, that factor, which, in problems, man's, 
Hath man, at clear advantage, in the doubt, 
Of when, and where— less painful, otherwise. 
Unless, in life, ere noon, stretched, on the bier : 
As, witness Him born, second, to a throne. 
Who, born, a yeoman, were, for manhood, 

crowned, 
Faint j by the bridal, ere, his vows were said : 
To Nature's undiscriminating stroke 
Dead, with the kiss of England on his brow : 
Fallen, before his Sire; dead, ere Her reign, 
The boast of Britain, closed: what argument, 
For years, still, Hers ; for life, in Him, her Son, 
To reign, tlie pride of Britain's line of kings, 
For preparation, in a third, to sit 
A throne, unchallenged.— Isled, to unity, 
Great Britain hath no option, to repent : 
Her crown must fit the Indies, cap the Islefl 
Of the Pacific— e'en, its continents ; 
Where, by the Pole, men hope, endue its frost. 
With expectation. 

Paris, erewhile, was France, but, Frenchmen 

are: 
Each olive grove, each patch of GalFc soil, 
A fortress, whence, French freedom, if, assailed, 
Had been defended. It were blasphemous. 
To boast— I am the State, her guillotine 
If, within earshot: while, to broadening 

thought, 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 159 

Increasing wealth and common equity, 
Not, Anglo-Saxon freedom, tlio', oi kin, 
i'rance trains to climb tlie willing Pyrenees. 
France is retrieving what she, erst, did ill, 
Ere, she her Phrygian cap had quite drawn on. 
No bat, in Europe, but descries in France, 
Gains, on the score of freedom— liberty, 
Late, a conceit, the fact a Frenchman is. 
France, hers, no word for home, is home itself, 
To th' eye that greets her landscape, realized ; 
Home, thrice impressive, axS a nameless fact. 
—Beyond the Pyrenees, cMvalrio Spain, 
Who gave to human nature, what she found 
Challeng;ing Western seas— and Portugal 
Patienit, four centuries, have ascertained 
How vast, their stake, in the worlds gratitude. 
—Helvetia clomb the Alps to liberty : 
Then, Avith a cable made her Cantons fast. 
Each, to the other, all, to th' Galenstock. 
—Belgium, if, Europe's battle ground, hath 

snatched 
The spoils, herself, and turns to culture peace. 
—Norway and Sweden, wed, than, hint divorce, 
Had, rather, widened, each, the marriage bed. 
—South, of the Baltic, on th' liistoric plain, 
Whereof, ^£,eo]ogy had, if, she would, 
Disclose some curious secrets— politics 
Demand perpetual genius : policy 
With pontoon bridges, oft, may span the gulf. 
Genius had drained, presenting it, the State, 
Aglow, with harvests. Unity, the key 
To her K^nown, dawned, late, lest premature. 
On Europe's fortunes. Germany hath bound 
In one ripe sheaf, Teutoinic liberties ; 
An empire, for a feudal monarchy. 
—Austria and Hungary have joined tlieir hards. 
One, to increasing freedom, in pursuit 
Of joint advantage.— As to Eussia's eye. 
There's not an eagle from the Ural's crags, 
Pursues his quarry, swifter, than doth it, 
Slavonic unity. 

—Bavaria eyes from Munich thro' the bronze, 
Of captured guns, her peaceful, thrifty realm. 
—Land, of the Kimri, of the Goth, whereof. 
History unfolds marvels, Denmark lifts 
Her Scandinavian genius, to the eye 
Of Europe, in Thorwaldsen, while, in arms, 
Her genius reflects glory on the Dane, 
To industry, who traineth either hand. 
Her commerce crowding sail, for subjec'} isles. 



160 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

—The Netlierlancls may watcli the ebb and how 
Of Europe, with composure, sprung, of faith 
In their own skill to dike the surging sea. 
In their own sons, to-day, their blood, who 

tipped 
The (Scale of battle, at Phansalia. 
ritness, to reign, is the one right, a king 
Hath to a sceptre ; birthright, profitless, 
To argue kingship, home:— for light has cleft 
The harness of the knight and the monk's cowl 
Lies interred, with it, in lit sepulclires— 
Memorials, to man's vision, of his late 
Bleared, rheumy eyesight.— Europe were con- 
tent, 
Hers, peace, with half her arsenals and forts, 
To spruikle her delight, on gala-days. 
In harmless salvos— half, her rowels, rust, 
Her armor, in museums. Light affects 
A bludgeon, with which, Nature, kindly,, 

whacks 
Her stupid products, soundly— who, when sight 
Shall, thence, surprise them, find their ridgy 

backs. 
Betray, how many welts, it costs, to see. 
Smart blows, with ethics, th' immaculate 

plume, 
Worn, in his helmet, stood man, where, he 

stands. 
Muscular strength, wherein, the lion plumes 
Himself, or, python— to a barbarous age. 
Appeared, in main, the favor of the gods ; 
Yet, strength dwells^ in his thoughts, less in his 

thews, 
Who, mastered, by his thoughts, were riderless. 

—China preserves 
Confucian wisdom, so inviolate. 
She, to the light of its philosophy, 
Has stood, thro' many centuries and stands, 
Just, as unshaken, (still— without a vice. 
In council, or, in function, adequate. 
To split her fortunes : thus, renowned Cathay 
Holds, fast, her throne, th' immaculate gift of 

Heaven, 
Whose Son doth sit it, with celestial fire 
Hedging Mongolian unity ; hei- walls 
Crumbling, before Confucian masonry. 
China, as the queen of Asia, casts her crown 
At th' feet of learning ; all her ministers 
Steept, to the eyes, in vats, of scholarship. 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 161 

Ere, wielding batons, in tli' eye of tli' crown. 

Her freedom is the Orient's, wliich, the West, 

Hatii not conditions, meet for, and declines 

To liberty, man, several ; in the mass, 

To th' Western mind, man, scarce, conceivable. 

The secret of Cathay is to ignore 

All, not Confucian, and to stereotype 

Her annals with him, whereby, unity. 

China affects Confucius, wherein, false. 

To science, wherein, true— a wilfulness 

She wields a sceptre, still, unsplintered, to. 

—Not in religion, In morality 

The secret, of the rise and fall of power. 

Kome, to the classic gods had, yet, been Eome, 

But, that, the morals of the gods, were false : 

China -endures, in whose, not pleasure smiles, 

As, in the Latin gods, in virtue's stead. 

The W^t stares a.t her empire, yet the blush 

Is not for China, whio astounds mankind 

In that, each peasant may, in aU her realm. 

Weigh his own brain against the throne, itself. 

In her own scales, adjusted, to a hair. 

The mind of man, preserved, inviolate. 

Is China's Pallas, fallen, from the skies; 

Whose honor is, she honors main, the most. 

Of all the cultured nations of mankind; 

Whose, if a blunder, 'tis a charming one, 

To have invested all she hath, in brains. 

Not, in that States were pagan, did they fail 

To eternize their fortunes— lost, to lack 

Of faith, in reason, to effeminate thews ; 

To both, conjointly. China hatih the key 

To her longevity, and holds it, fast, 

Sur^dvor, both of Attica and Eome, 

Belike, of Egypt— one of every three, 

Born to the planet, China takes, in hand ; 

Who, in a temper, of true equity. 

Which, wholly, human, men may hail, divine. 

Commits her fortunes, to the intellect. 

That proves the clearest : numbers do not tell, 

Not, e'en, four hundred millions against one. 

And that one, the pariah of her realm, 

Be he, the wisest, in it.— Even, He, 

Fabled, from Heaven, who sits her storied 

thirone. 
Sits, subject, to the censorship, of men. 
Renowned for wisdom sa for honesty ; 
Theirs, to inistruct, or, chide the Son of Heaven. 
—China is dreaming, on her laurels, had, 



162 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Wlio should: be plucking fresh ones : hers, tL^ 

zeal 
With scholarship, undoubted, to achieve 
Whatever, reason may : Confucius, hers. 
Hers, Mencius— but, man, since, with all liis arts. 
These, hers, to seize and to ennoble, hers, 
By genius, tho' half proven, unexcelled. 
—Japan is marching westward, valiantly : 
In her stirred brain, a pledge of amity, 
As th' Westerns gauge it; while, her geniug 

tln-obs 
With all tlie West would stake its fortunes on ; 
Art, too, with her, aggressive ; intellect 
Would, seek, with China, honor, for itself, 
As, nowhere else, excelled : while, in each vein 
Her blood, with instinct, ever, insular. 
Prompts to adventure, to companionsliip 
With all the Ages, in the Powers, that be. 
Land, of the Eising Sun, her countless isles. 
Seem, as, if, lately, risein from the sea, 
Wlio, in a score, of j^ears, by forward, strides, 
Her annals, immemorial, puts to the blush ; 
Training her .sons, to Western Liberty, 
To Western slavery, the elements. 

Like Egypt and like China, Persia stood. 
Conspicuous, when, the annals, of the sphere. 
To Time's short-winded memory, begins. 
Persia, herself, the essence, source and soul 
Of all theology— what hath she left 
But, the countens of her players ?— She has been 
Whate'er, of elder nations, coveted, 
Wlio turns her eyes, as, ever, on the sun 
Half, fitly, too, for Avho hath, yet, defi,ned 
That, styled a sunbeam ?— While, no man has 

yet, 

Eode, by the sun, but, in a telescope, 

—Persia waits, 
Has, almost, bidden Western thrift— Come in: 
Her mind, historic, hers, ancestral loins 
Tho boast of Asia.— What, to count«.nance 
And, yet, retain, traditions, that report 
To Zoroaster, is her privilege, 
E'en, o'eT the Moslem, striving for her throat : 
Since, the arts of locomotion and of speech. 
By Western genius, Persia would were, hers. 
Whose future partakes freedom, in the West, 
When, Eeason boasts an ensign of her own- 
Flung down the Andes, Alps and Pyrenees, 
Blown down the Urals and the Apeiminee. 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 163 

In half his States the Mongol's heart revolves 
Eound the Grand Llama, while, in all its 

throbs, 
Allegiance to his faith ; in half, a prayer, 
To his innumerous saints : if, gravity 
Had lost its function, Nature had found here, 
Its moral parallel. Most cleverly, 
Eeligion, as a halter, swings men, off. 
From any scaffold, with a conscience, clear ; 
Belief, to cowardice, whate'er men fear ; 
To courage, what, men dare. 

—If, India 
Should Westernize her thews and give her gods 
Convenient exit— hers, the privilege 
To thrive, to English premises ; a fact 
Once, she had realized, there had not been 
Eaoug]i seduction in the lotos, thence, 
To win her back, to India, as she is. 
India wafts cheer to Asia in the flag 
Of Britain, flying o'er her : manhood, grown 
By the icy North, is so unlike that, dipt. 
In th' sacred Ganges, 'tis for argument. 
If, both, could be made one : yet, liberty, 
In any tongue, is that so pregnant word. 
Gestation o'er, a babe leaps from its womb : 
And England to her Asiatic realm 
Discourses orient problems, scarce, in th' tones, 
Caught, by the ears of Yorkshire Englishmen. 

Asia presents her mountains, with their roots 
As deep as ever, and her valleys, washed 
By the rivers, her faith bathes in, with a zeal 
That turns their currents, turb'd— yet, her arts 
Smack, more, of indigestion, than, of nerve, 
A wholesome stomach genders : faith appears 
Eeading time backward, but, a clumsy trick 
Transparent, as pure water. 

—Uncultured leisure is but murdered time. 

Asia, in dreamy contemplation, sits 

Where, she sat, forty centuries ago, 

In eremite, in anchorite, in priest. 

Her nameless vermin, sacred to her faith ; 

Indolent, pious, thriftless, immobile. 

Should Asia drop her beads and kill her fleas, 

Metempsychosis, routed, in the act— 

A Faith of forty centuries, had set, 

The Light of reason risen in its stead. 

—What, tradition is. 
Behold, in Asia, with a sting, therein, 
Perpetual palsy. Error, never, dies, 



164 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Where, truth, has, never, sprouted; sun and 

soil, 
With no persuasives, to do, otherwise, 
Than, make, prolific, each accursed vine, 
Wliose fruit is poison.— Contemplation means 
To look facts, in their faces ; pious joy. 
In stalwart purpose, making, for man's weal. 
—The flagellant commits the very crime. 
For wMch his back should bleed, the fact, it- 
self, 
Of ha^dng scarified his flesh at all. 
If, fast and penance could drive Asia, back. 
To occupy her senses, she has had 
Of pains enough. What, then, may, yet, re- 
store 
The zealot, to her senses, unless, steam, 
Or, an electric current wliisk her round 
Her slumbrous continent, till every hair 
Sprouts, from her shaven crown : in every hair 
A thought, or purpose, of th' heroic West, 
In every hair, man's own mortality— 
The problem, life t' escape, not found, so hard ? 
Who, even, stirs a rubbish heap, wherein, 
God may not flash in some uncovered gem? 
So, thro' man's sacred books, a casual gleam 
Of wisdom, may liint God, in honoring man. 
—Make light of fear, as fear makes light of 

thee. 
The game, 0, Asia— bluff. 

Africa, wasting, since, imperial Eome, 
With pestilent fevers— frantic, cries, for help. 
From all her jungles ; gold and ivory 
Casting, ingenuous, at all Europe's feet : 
Her plea, for light— her soil, itself, for light. 
Eeflect, 0, Europe, thou wert Barbary, 
While, Africa had lit, to th' Middle Age 
A torch, that hath restored thee, to thyself. 

—What enigma, this 
E'en Isabella's jewels haste to solve? 
Spain had an empty coffer, but, for these, 
Whose flash of scorn, w^ell, nigh, replenished it : 
Nor, had Columbus sailed, or, not, from Spain 
But, for the epoch, by her jewels, made. 
Ten thousand crowns, besides, three caravels- 
Is not Columbus, mad, and Isabel ? 
Half, thought so Ferdinand, with Arragon, 
As, he, who pushing France-ward, on an ass, 
To Isabella's plea, retraced his steps, 



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THE REVOLT OF REASON. 165 

To snatch a precious jewel, for Spain's brow, 
She may not lose, to any accident, 
Its blaze, as constant as the polar star's. 
Four centuries, ago, Queen Isabel 
Had pledged her jewels to a mariner's 
Conceit, of nearer India : thence the crown 
Of Leon and Castile, flashed with more gems, 
Than, tears Columbus shed t' ingratitude, 
Who, neither, found Cipango, nor Cathay, 
Yet, stood upon the threshhold of a world, 
Flung, wide, the door, when, in a sailor slipt, 
And scratched his name upon a window pane. 
Vext, all the manhood of the ages, since. 
That, he who died, in iroas, to his zeal 
For man, failed, of a namesake, in a sphere. 
Yet, he, whose chains, were with his corse, in^ 

terred 
Has slept till resurrection and, anon, 
Two worlds shall crown the patient Genoese, 
Who died, unmindful, he had cleft a sphere, 
Dreampt, he, but, skirted Asia, in the Isles, 
His caravels had touched at : had he seen 
The Continent, he sought not, he, yet, found, 
Wliat mighty thumps, his joy, for th' waning 

throbs 
Of his despairing heart, that burst, to chains? 
Yet, th' hemisphere is his, whatever name. 
It bears, or, may— Columbia, eternized. 
By the sailor's footprints, on San Salvador. 
The smile, of Isabel, pursues each ray 
Of Western sunshine, while, th' ingratitude 
Of Ferdinand, toward a brave mariner. 
Assures, to her, the plaudits of all time. 
Whose gems had won, if, Spain had not, a 

world. 

A sailor, with a lantern, in his head ; 
A genius, half, discovered— in the role 
Of fancy, crowned with vision ; in the realm 
Of reason, autocratic : as, a man. 
The ornament of manhood, when the worth 
Of manhood, was debated : fortitude. 
Pronounced, as was his clemency, contest ; 
If, sanguine, to a fault, the fault, itself. 
Surprised new lands ; not, visionary, then. 
He had not sailed from Palos for Cathay; 
Persistency of purpose, ardor, zeal, 
Patience, with shrewdness, hope, dexterity ; 
With self-respect, an appetite, for fame. 
That, but, on joints of fair achievement feeds, 



166 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Were qualities, liis ovvn, by eminence. 

Columbus, tho' a bigot, to au Age, 

Of bigotry, prevails iu history, 

Scathless, against detraction, inlinite ; 

Sharing a name, immortal, Isabel. 

—Yet, of thy womb he sprang, Italy ; 

So, of her laurels, Spain must proh'er thee: 

Thine, an exacting mother's privilege 

To swell with the lad's honors, whom, the sea 

Remarking brave, when age had sobered him, 

Insured h.s voyage to San Salvador, 

Commerce, for ports in Asia, underwrit. 

But, for the Church, on what, yet, earlier day. 

Some other sailor might have plowed the seas 

Hoping new lands— for the inveterate foe 

Of man, in God's name, had denounced a curca 

On him, had proven the earth, spherical, 

And, but, the servile liege, of yonder sun. 

Winds, dead, ahead, with th' devil, in th' hull, 

Man pushed discovery, with piety. 

Such as inspired Columbus to have vov/ed 

To rescue, yet, the Sepulchre of Christ, 

His cruises, gainful : the Crusader's dream 

Still, lingered, in the faithful Genoese, 

The cross, his pennant : in a hemisphere. 

Unveiled, to Europe, closed the last crusade. 

Still, had the Norseman glimpst thro' polar 

frost 
The icy locks of a huge Continent, 
Whose feet disport, in waters tropical, 
Columbus saw not : had the Norseman sv/ani 
Past Barnegat, past Hatteras and snuft 
The blown Bermudas, he had spread a tale 
Thro' Iceland, that had vext the sea with gulls 
Winging the Norsemen, hither ; e'en to them, 
In balmy winds, in ever-blooming flowers, 
In fruit, that craves not culture, but a hand 
To pluck its bounty, might have proved, a 

charm 
To bathe, in sunshine, their frost-bitten l:vc3. 

Here is that land, the ancient dreampt had 

been ; 
Who cocooned it, in fable, which, belike 
In Atalantis had gone down the wave, 
Unresurrected— yet, behold ! it risen. 
The virgin world of romance and of song : 
Tho' old as Thebes, still, old, when Thebes was 

young ; 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 167 

The most mysterious, unmysterious half, 
Of man's important, unimportant sphere. 
O, for a dredge had scoured th' Atlantic's bed 
With the Pacific's for a single hint, 
Of what, she had been, if a hint be there, 
Ere, yet, Columbus : life, disguised, by paint 
Wampum and feathers ; life, in architraves. 
Buried, profoundly, in a tropic soil, 
Fragrant, of Empires, gone— is proof, indeed, 
That but insists on, more. Here, if, unearthed, 
Man's early fortunes, Egypt had divulged 
Her own enigma, and her mystery 
Had. found a solvent, in a hemisphere. 
The Elder, with such incidents of youth, 
As palm it off, as, Nature's, newly bom. 

Four hundred years, in either hemisphere. 
Alone, in history, wherein, remarked, 
For man's material vantage, or, wherein, 
For vision, due heroic surgery ; 
Wherein, for nascent freedom— fit, it seems. 
Both worlds partake a common holiday, 
And on the soil, by Europe's mariner. 
Devised to sequent Ages, give his fame, 
A mortal whiff, that hath immortal wing. 

While, Lusitania, by bold seamanship, 
Doubled the jewelled heel of Africa, 
Spain stared at the Pacific, swum the strait. 
Found half the globe, a waste of billowy seas. 
Whose archipelagoes arc, even, yet, 
Withholding data, from geography. 
To match discovery, by land and sea. 
Dismissing Aristotle, half-infirm. 
Arguing the heavens, aright— debating man, 
Eeason, to units, brought him, at a blow. 
She, without precedent, for half, she did. 
Saw, in much driftwood, promise of new land 
Her canvas strained for : it was seamanship 
That, often, cast the lead; oft of the skies, 
Entreating sea-room ; it was confidence 
In man, as man, untried, put, to the test. 
To disadvantage, man's, with the test, sus- 
tained. 
A vaster hemisphere, of reason, found 
In th' waste, outlying, than Spain scourged for 

gold; 
While, on that hemisphere, ere Spain had done 
Her search for riches, she enthroned herself, 
In th' name of Freedom, tho' of later loins, 



168 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Than, theirs, of Marathon—yet, like, their own, 
With, for the Isles, of Greece, a hemisphere. 
With, for an Attica, a Continent. 

Yet, sprung more freedom, of the Pilgrim's 

pluck, 
Than, from his dogmas ; for, his faith, in God, 
Developed faith, in man, with tomahawks, 
Arrows and scalping knives, the incidents 
Of his experience. To his firelock, faith 
Lent execution : in the Puritan, 
The dying throb of the Age of Faith, survived. 
For tomb and holy grail, the knight had fought 
With, ever, on his crest, as, in his heart, 
Eeminders of his oath, to womanhood. 
In her, his heart confest :— the Puritan, 
God— only, God, his, not a license, man's 
But, were a penance, to the Cavalier : 
Yet, his was knighthood, tho' unhorsed, afoot. 
That had encountered polar frost, for Heaven. 
Enthusiasm, from a woman's arms. 
Ventured to Jewry, in the pious knight : 
Exchanged for zeal, inspired by th' liberty, 
To think, aloud, tho' in a widerness, 
The knighthood of the Pilgrim, served the 

State, 
Half, by the very errors, due, to faith. 
A commonwealth, to Britain, mounts a throne 
With Cromwell's warning ringing in both ears : 
But, to the acreage, the Pilgrim found, 
A Commonwealth, into a State, resolves ; 
Both oceans, heaving vantage and defense, 
Arguing, the popular will, perpetual. 

—Of a virgin world, 
Eurqpe ran on, as, if, an Eastern tale : 
Then, having sliced it up, she cast the bits 
Among her courtiers : yet, the liberty 
Of thought, outsailed the eager colonist, 
Safe, here, to bid him welcome, as, he set 
His foot, uncertain, where, he set it down. 
—Who, in the dreary daybreak, offered fight 
To th' Briton, by Leonidas were led. 
Spartan, to broader freedom, where, they fell, 
Than, at Thermopylae. Courage is the same 
In every age, but, never, to the blast 
Of every bugle, equal : valor clings 
To the dam's breast, a babe, forever, fed. 
With th' milk, that flushes heroes. Any blade 
Outranks Toledo's, if, it slash its way 
Clean, to a throne and force it to do right : 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 169 

Such valor is an epoch ; such was, theirs, 
From Lexington to Yorktown, facing odds, 
"''"'or common justice. 

'Tis ours, who have it— theirs, who capture it ; 

So, runs the doubtful law, time, still sustains; 

Meum and tuum, with few sanctions, yet, 

But, smell of burnt gunpowder. Liberty 

Hath, tlien, the Western Hemisphere, her own, 

First, in the right, as, of discovery, 

Next, in her mustering arms, had held it, fast. 

Yet, if her title lack an element 

Of strength, she finds it, in the weal of men. 

Which, once, despaired of— lo ! her title fails, 

Her guns were spiked, her gallant gunners 

slain, 
Her paps, torn, by more arrows, than, yon sun 
Had quenched, twanged at him— while the out- 
raged seas 
Had swampt her Continents. 

—What shall save 
Her cities from pollution and her soil 
From felony and murder and assure 
Liberty, to Americans ?— her soil 
To husband, well, for free-born citizens ? 
Better, her land, a howling wilderness. 
Than, rocking, to the fortunes of a mob. 
Majorities may have the ring of gold. 
Or, the false ring of guineas, counterfeit : 
Minorities, thus, govern, not, in right. 
Of the minority, in reason's own, 
"Wliereby, they govern, who prove competent : 
It, the same right, that, all majorities 
"Wield, to intelligence, or, lose, to none. 
—Where'er opinion sways a State or Eealm, 
In party-spirit, its palladium ; 
Of power, that had encroached on th' popular 

will 
The prompt corrective; it, to flagging zeal, 
That would assert rights, yet, unrecognized, 
Ee-stimulf tion— while, the common mind. 
To clarify and raise, a forum, whence, 
Incessant disputation. 
—Freedom, in capitals, on every page. 
Of ad captandum volumes proves, how near 
Eelated, freedom is to printer's ink. 
In half, the world's esteem— while, platitudes. 
That, like the music-monger's popular airs, 
Preserve a cruel sameness, stir the wax, 
In drowsy listeners' ears. 



170 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Wliat, these shores expect 
Is sweat, to till them, not the irony 
Of labor, the East starvea to : not, a,n eye 
In search of unearned guineas, but, an arm 
To cleave the oak, or furrow the fat soil 
For willing harvests— an American, 
Ere, he has lost his sea-legs, would, in each, 
Ere, he has sworn allegiance, hither, come; 
Latnd, left behind him, thence, a memory. 
'Tis treason to America, wherein. 
Allegiance is half-hearted— while, the gold, 
Had, from America, were, justly, hers. 
To build her fortunes, broadening, to more sons. 
Him, here, to find a pocketbook and stem 
The ocean ferry, homeward, should receive 
As many lashes, as half-eagles h's, 
He would steal off with. 'Tis not Griqua-land, 
Whence, with, of gems, a handful, to take 

flight ; 
A land,, a home, 'tis not a halting-place. 
Adventure flags, her own, from the Andes' 



And th' Eocky Mountains : populous, enough, 
To formulate a destiny, she hath 
Ignored her antecedents, as a world, 
Wlierein, the outlaw sought a heritage, 
Wliich, despite justice and the rights of man, 
His, to give false direction : henceforth, man's 
To culture manhood, that vocation, theirs. 
Who venture, hither. 

Under what specious guise, did Conscience 

late, 
Revive the Phallus and the orgies crown. 
With plural marriage, till the virgin soil 
Of Utah, swarms, with saints-in-bastardy ? 
Freedom, unwary, must have closed her eyes. 
On half a Continent, while, to the chin. 
Immersed, in gain, by the Atlantic's roar. 
Deaf, to the wail, of butchered chastity. 
And, yet, the Mormon lingers, less, to purge 
His still, transparent life^ of lechery, 
Than, to the law, to veil it— and behind 
Impervious arras, to spread wider bunks. 
Thus, fitly, maskers, behind leaves of brass 
Etched, with much drivel, still entice their 

dupes 
To slavery, not African, but worse, 
Thro' a. credulity, that, at a gulp, 
A coach-and-six had bolted and cried— more! 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 171 

—Here, if no stage, 
To Europe re-enact, as Europe was ; 
A drama, Europe, as she is, had failed. 
That plague of empire, found in vicinage 
Perplexes Europe, who each problem solves 
Thro' ever-swelling fleets and armameints : 
Analogy, at fault, iju feudal power 
And power, one step from a Democracy. 
Men, in the past, were freednien and wherein 
Born, freemen, yet, to .reason and to pluck. 
Prone to enact the Eoman— tyrants sweep 
Man's heart-strings for a \i.ol— give his eye, 
The gladiator, he commits the State 
To wanton cohorts. Liberty responds 
To moral purpose, free to will and do : 
Is less, conspicuous option to enjoy 
One's sweat, as one elects ; freedom as jet, 
Seen, as a larva, to the imago, 
A lexicon revised some ages hence 
Had served her fitly— of his thoughts mean- 
while 
Eesolving into justice, man, confest. 
An acquisition of his intellect. 
Life, here, is tentative, with but the link 
Of common human nature, to unite 
Man's fortunes with the past : his, liberty 
With men and means to do whate'er she would, 
If, when done, wisely— to light save her own 
None, safer that the dog star's : liberty 
In man, la knight to his own chivalry. 
Is reason against wampum— politics. 
With precedent against it, but the Crown 
Meant for a feudal prince, man snatched and 

wears. 
Less, in the fact of suffrage, than in th' light 
That casts the ballot, freedom— argument 
For more light, never done : in liberty, 
A highel- scholarship, than had sufficed 
To relish Homer, to driA^e smartly home. 
Her golden tent pins ; to instil in toil 
A craving, next to bread, for aliment 
Had twisted moral purpose round her thews 
And in each nook and corner of the brain 
Had occupation. 

Not, greater Europe, but America 
In S5mipathy with mountain, lake and plain. 
Her regal betterments— their privilege 
To build who will, with square and trowel, 
hers. 



172 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

The policy of joint America 

Eesents dictation : since, in politics, 

The policy of Europe is her own, 

So, on the Western Hemisphere, proceeds 

An argument for power, American. 

No mirror for America, not wrought 

Of her own silver ; hers, no threshing floor 

But th' prairies slie has harvested— her 

strength 
In sons and many, who confess the plow, 
Yet ague freedom; on opinion stood, 
Unpropt of bayonets, who propt thereby, 
Had fallen on her sword a suicide. 
Democracy, with welts, like Attica's, 
Is the first milestone, past a virtuous State, 
Whatever, Art, or Culture warrant there. 
E'en, if her soil be yet the gamesters' stake. 
Whence, (rules of play but from the game- 
sters, sat? 
Their arms had queried. If, a derelict, 
Who, in mid-ocean, have the craft, in tow. 
What admiralty, but the better steel 
Had wrested from them ? 

—In courageous sons, 
In gold and silver, subject to her draft, 
With Nature's seal on half, unbroken yet, 
In field, in loom, in forge, a trinity 
Of factors, that to famine, fire and sword, 
While, heedful, breathe of apprehension, free; 
In single marriage, with unshaken vows. 
In maidens, taught the distaff and the stars, 
In lads, taught how to clamber into men. 
In fathers, who remember they have sons. 
In mothers, who had silenced they are wives, 
In fields of corn thalt ripen into brains, 
In demagogues as rare as if from God, 
In patriots \as thick as summer flies, 
In conscience, with no cast in either eye, 
In justice blind as ever to who pleads— 
A Future, for America, or non^^. 
In th' English language, the North Continent 
Hath uinity beyond both steam and steel. 
And th' electric flash on treason's trail. 
Freedom, therein, not polvglot, but theirs 
The English tongue, as if vernacular, 
Unargued, whence met there. What argument 
Therein, for conscience, in a license, wid« 
As freedom to no law, but 'each man's will? 
What plea for rights not native to the soil? 
While Europe ieyes her scales, discretion there, 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 173 

Pursues opinion— or to lend it wing— 

Or, thwart its vantage, when inimical 

To popular freedom— man, that uppermost, 

In man, tJie many : in America 

Of either Ocean severed from the Past, 

Man, to his intuitions, breathes restored. 

A nation, if of soldiers under arms, 
Stagnates to peace and burns for war to let, 
For freshening throbs in life that had survived. 
Her own blood freely : in a nation, free, 
A soldiery of citizens, in peace. 
Implies not blood to opportunity, 
A country's power, e'en how invincible, 
Hers, one estate, Kings, lords and commons, 
—man. 

—Courage long bottled may have tturned to air 

Occasion come to prove it— to the stress 

Of an emergence, courage raw, defies 

Oft, odds and weathered files. 

In men's traditions of a Church and State 

Propt of each other— in Power secular. 

With violent presumption against man, 

Investiture Divine— in the still flow 

Of that insidious stream, a mythic Past, 

Perpetual menace to America. 

Yet, in the Common School, the common mind 

Hails light enoug,h to urge it to seek more, 

While the Press winds it in a comet's tail. 

And Science airs to keep her secrets well. 

Thro' emulation, from the sculling match 

To Senatorial combat, leadership 

Enchanting many narrows to the few 

Who fill with honor, place. If, ever true, 

Ambition seeks the honors of the Stat^, 

The State rewards Ambition : to this day 

The gladiator of the dexterous steel 

Is hero, to all peoples, if he fall 

To shafts of envj?^, in his cutting off. 

In sight of power, his apotheosis, 

A nation, prostrate— while, th' incumbent, dead 

May leave a corpse, so shrunken to the pomp, 

That waits his burial, as to argue home, 

He is the throne, who fills it. 

A race of men, tho' not autocthones, 

Yet, veritable products of The West, 

Her soil, her skies, her climate, liberty 

Photographed in the (humblest countenance 

Defines that type of life, American. 



174 A MAMMAIi ONLY. 

Freedom of thought forbids intolerance, 
Yet, Conscience, if a clever mask for shame. 
Treason, or immorality— what, then? 
Imperium, in imperio— possible. 
To a false conscience, were not to one true ; 
Loyalty to the State 'found broad enough 
For every creed at peace, and not, at war 
With human nature: altho' pertinent, 
Why yet retain the supernatural, 
A word, for something, men know (nothing of, 
Who beg the question, if a fact, at all? 
The State for closes what had thwarted her, 
In re-distributing to men, the powers, 
Confided to her— by her seal, thereon, 
Inviolable.— 

The future, of all Power, is equity. 
Or, re-construction : .not a plea is left 
For Power, an heirloom, as, a guarantee, 
Against dismissal ; in dynastic blood. 
But, a presumption, in his favor, sat, 
To sway a Kingdom. Wliat an impetus 
To wholesome manhood, were the fall of caste ; 
Whence, Asia's blight, whence Europe's sal- 
low fields. 
Which, well disguised, would cross th' Atlan- 
tic strait ? 
Men are, here, fitly, if to ascertain 
Tlie soundness of that bond, of Nature, sealed, 
She forfeits, to man's failure to achieve 
High aims, she fosters, in him— in th' event 
The earth shall prove his mas+ers'— his reward 
Still, but, the dole, begrudged a villien's 

sweat. 
Freedom appears, but breaches in the walls 
Of men's traditions; man's, all conquests, 

hence, 
In wider breaches— all her riders cast. 
Who mounts the fleetest steed, e'er yet be- 
strode. 
But, most sure-footed— he, with thrice the dash 
Of Knight, historic : with his mettle, thrice. 
Time, thrice, las precious, purpose, thrice as 
high! 

—Who will, come in— but, let him, at the door, 
Cast off his sandals, careful, not, to bring 
The old world hither— his, if accent the new, 
As, he shall find it : to her pupilage, 
Submiss, a neophyt<^ of liberty : 
Here, both his school of morals and of light; 
Here, and American or, here, amiss: 



THE REVOLT OF REA^SON". 175 

Here, the one flag, his heart must throb with 

raised ; 
His life, in peace, found, gainful, to it furled. 

The Social State is man, with pared nails. 
Unknotted hair and beard— with face and 

hands, 
Pure, to both lye and water, and himself. 
Wrapt, or, in homespun, or, in broadcloth, sat, 
T' enjoy the fact of life, with other men, 
Found, like him, willing, both, to eat of salt. 
And break their bread, together. There had 

been 
No mystery, in life, man had not solved, 
Its data, laid before him— 'tis, to loss, 
Of facts, philosophy, is, at a stand. 
All rights of man and rights of property, 
If, not, inviolate, no social state. 
Give men the rights, e'en rodents have, to house 
And hold it, sacred, their own industry. 
The world's woof is barbaric, with stray threads 
Of culture, in the warp, whose tints unite 
To dominate the glare and hint the eye. 
Of th' harmony of virtue. 
—What, a blown rose, to breathe of. Ages, 

hen-e, 
Freedom, may, haply, be ? Plaste, vainly, makes 
An argument, for fi*eedom. that involves 
No preparation— freedom, slow to learn. 
How, to, oft, ford the Seine and wash her feet. 
Quit, of blood, always.— Who, of all men, 

knows. 
How, near, he sleeps to freedom, or, how far. 
From chains, that wait his ankles? Wliat, 

so lit. 
As, her slashed flag, to summit, yet, staunch 

heaps 
Of putrefaction ?— The concluding act 
Voicing the drama, dips, th' catastrophe, 
In colors, fast, as Tyre's.— Humanity 
Seemed, with the earth, a plane, a horizon 
Wide, as a nomad's tent— to the earth, sphered, 
Humanity, resolved into a globe. 
That savings, the, only, known, celestial sphere 

Man finds no stigma on him, from his birth. 
Whose meritorious progress should receive 
All marks of sterling merit— from the start 
Who hath not borne a cancer, in his breast, 
Tho' he hath sought, to medicate a sore. 



176 A MAMMAIi ONLY. 

His fears located there— not on the acent 
Of expectation, rising, to seek God, 
But, leaving God, behind him- voluble. 
—What is truth ? 
Truth seems, the problem, that experience 

solves. 
Religion is not true, because of th' coat 
Of th' label, stuck upon it— is not, false. 
In that, it hath no label : piety 
Hath such an aroma, as, hath good wine, 
Uncork it, all lips smack. 
— Numa created the first Pontifex ; 
Still, in the Sacied College, one survives. 
Numa, the oracle, of pagan Rome, 
Spake and that uttered, was infallible. 
On points of dogma, ritual and faith. 
As, touching Venus, Bacchus, Jove or Pan. 
The Western Cult seems pagan, with a veil 
Of th' charities spun oA'-er it— whose stride 
Is from the Buddha, to new mysteries. 
With utterances, final : Man, forlorn, 
Solaced, but by sheer opulence, of hope, v 
The upright man boasts all the Christian hath, 
Rxcept the latter's fancy, and accepts 
Whate'er a Christian may, except, his dreams ; 
Hath, sometimes, purer morals, than, the last ; 
Therein, a better Christian : uprightness, 
Remarked, as salient, in the former's life, 
As, in the latter's— love and charity, 
Man's, ere Christ was, man's, when, Christ may 

have been : 
That, supernatural, the last reveres. 
But, pagan fancy, washed and Christianized. 
Tho' dead, to faith, in the supernatural, 
The West were wholly Christian, in so far. 
As, the term is not cabalistical ; 
Since, less, of facts, than words, the world de- 
bates. 
Religion, seldom, is morality: 
Yet, morals were religion, if, indeed. 
No God existed. 
The West should, kindly, judge the peaceful 

Jew, 
Whose honest verdict may, vet, be mankind's. 
As to Christ's own Mps^iahship, wherein, 
The only Son, of the Eternal God: 
Messiah as a cry from Babylon 
For Israel's restoration, illustrates 
Half, its significance— tho', when s<^t free. 
But, straggling Jews return to Palestine. 



THE REVOLT OF RE^ON. 177 

Of guilt, enough, on tlie Western nations, laid— 
God, man-Mke, personal, to have invoked 
Fire, fabled, to have licked a Sodom up- 
Murderous, of the Hebrew, thro' their zeal, for 

Christ : 
False, were he God; most cruel, Christ, a man, 
Past all analogy in history. 
If, Christ, a man, acclaimed himself, a God, 
He did, thereby, in Hebrew ears, blaspheme ; 
To Jewish law, incurred, and suffered death— 
Unstigmatized, the Jew, unless, indeed. 
He crucified the God, of Heaven, Himself, 
In him, of Nazareth : theology 
Means nothing, or, means this— the very God 
Bled, to the Eoman spear, on Calvary : 
Which, reason, in the bud, held, strictly, true, 
Wliich, she, in flower, so blushes, to have 

breathed. 

Why not reflect, that 'tis on hearsay, stands 
Such facts of history, as fall without 
Common experience and the Hebrew's breast, 
Pierced, torn, and lacerated— medicate ? 
Is it his fault, the eager West accepts 
Both, what the Hebrew credits and doth not ? 
The o'er credulous West, on the vainglorious 

East, 
Stampt th' holiness, she, rather, had, herself, 
In frosty morals. It is, wholly, due 
To th' prestige given th' Hebrew, by the West, 
Thro' the adoption of his oracles. 
That, the Jew remains, a sticlder, for his faith : 
The Western nations, foremost, propping him 
In his exclusive clutch, on God's own throne. 

That voice along the Ages, tremulous. 

With torturing hell has, to a whisper, sunk. 

That jubilant with heaven, beyond, doth sink 

Into a gentle w^hisper— heaven is here, 

When, man hath reared her walls. 

—A state of things, so strange, it startles one, 

Eevolving it, within him, had not seemed, 

Experienced, briefly, as infeasible, 

But, had appeared to, fitly, fill the void 

Of an exploded, false economy. 

Man, as the product, of a product, hatih 

Nor past, nor future— his expectancy, 

From sweat and brains— or, false. Lord, of this 

sphere, 
Th' economy is man's, in no sense, God's, 



l78 A mammaIj only. 

Involving Supreme Wisdom : it would seem, 
Man hath a lease, and, for a barley corn, 
Perpetual ol the planet : mortal aims, 
Man's, ever, to pursue— whose history 
Proves, only, human purposes, achieved. 
When, stript of fable, there is nothing left, 
But, man, whose reason and unreason pen 
Alike, his annals : a persistent growth, 
In human nature, all the argument, 
For main's existence, raw and tentative 
Kor, had man dreampt of any end, beyond 
The weal of persons, in the common weal ; 
A scheme of nature, closing with the grave, 
But, for his tribal Shastres, Bards and Seers. 
The scheme of Nature seems, not men, but, 

man : 
Men are, both, mortal and ephemeral, 
Are the collective forces, whence proceeds 
Each type of manhood, whence, to predicate 
A type, still, higher: but when Nature means 
To pause and dub man, consummate, remains 
Her own state secret. So, should this man die 
Or, that, untimely, men anticipate 
The void, thus, left, no living man had filled : 
Who, indispensable thus, seems, in life. 
Proves so, no longer— brushing past his bier, 
Another, in a worthier, than, himself, 
Argues his memory, brief. 
—A continent, abandoned, had it not 
Kelapsed, anon, to savagery, wherein, 
Man had reclaimed it?— Thence, with lions, 

pards 
And serpents, riotous, a million years. 
Should man avoid it— had that continent 
Proved not sea-bottom, ere the term had run, 
To lands, resurgent ?— So, analogy 
Had proved man's mastership is absolute ; 
His reign, to last, while, th' earth may nur- 
ture him. 
To the assent of Nature and of God. 

If, th' theory of life is, wholly, man's. 

Then, to amend it is his privilege. 

Or to adopt a fitter theory. 

Of life, than, that one, Asiatic, still : 

What, man's next conquest? every Senate's 

theme. 
Tliink, of the millions, dead, to nious vows. 
By lions, fire and sword ; of millions, more. 
Wasting, in dungeons; of the holocaust. 



*HE REVOLT OF REASON". 179 

Bleeding, to Juggernaut, or, in the arms, 
01 Moloch, roasted— and what zeal hath laith, 
In what, men will, to prove their lunacy ? 
Man, ever, was the dupe of something, past, 
Of something, that was not; of something, 

done. 
Of something fancy dreampt of : mystery, 
Ever, the poisoned shirt, to wind him in. 
God is a word, familiar, to man's lips. 
Who argues toward the fact, it adumbrates ; 
Whose earlier notions, favored gods, as men. 
Of monstrous stature, simply— when, t' con- 
ceive 
A God, not, personal, impossible. 
Evidence of tlieir absence, in all time, 
Authentic, what, of vouchers, now and then. 
For present gods, in eras, fabulous ? 
Man's coming to it, strange as it may seem. 
To rail at his progenitors and vote 
Man, such, a shameless liar, in the past, 
Whom what oath had made, truthful, him, 
none hath? 

God had not poisoned wells, to punish men ; 

Yet, bigots had and hailed it, providence. 

That, providence, intent, t' enrich the knave, 

And whet the appetites of virtuous men. 

For garlic, e'en, for garbage ? He extols. 

In Fortune's bower, a special providence. 

But, he, on whom, she, never, deigns to smilo. 

Nestles, the closlier, to impartial law. 

Who dare conclude, from man's experience, 

If, half mankind were in the jaws of death, 

Thro' sheer starvation— by a miracle. 

Life had been succored?— The economy 

Of human life, if, consciously man's own, 

What reasons, for a special provide ace, 

As, strong, as those against it?— Man's, the 

reins, 
Who cracks his whip and the fleet coursers fly : 
Necessity and destiny, alike. 
Go down, with fable, as, two rodents had, 
In a craft lost at sea. 

Sweat prays and gets an answer in each drop. 
While, laziness had prayed the season, thro'. 
And starved, most fitly : neither, sun, nor 

shower. 
Hath, ever, sprouted any lazy prayer. 
All virtue in a prayer, lies in one's faith 



ISO A MAMMAL ONIiY. 

That, God may heed it : thus, an answer, Bteept, 

In resignation, calms a baffled life. 

Prayers, to the imagination, as to God, 

Are, oft, petitions, honored, palpably, 

In life's experience : to the sanguina mind, 

Fired, to achieve and stirred by diligence, 

Quite, preternatural, the confidence. 

Of victory, inspirits. So, of hope. 

Found it, on what, men will, if, plausible, 

Imagination fit responses, makes 

To all her orators. 

—In morals, as, in physics, not a law, 

Less, constant, than, is gravity— not one 

Hath, yet, been known, to swerve to faith, a 

jot. 
Him, prayed for, stricken, by disease, restored. 
Argues, to health, recovered, vital force. 
Not, yet, exhausted— while, had he deceased 
No fact, so clear, that prayer did not avail ; 
Tho' it, weU, proves to reason, vital power. 
Failed, whea, the clock recorded, he had died; 
Nor, had the prayers, if, of a planet, joint, 
Endued his heart to pulsate, once, beyond, 
Unprayed-for respiration. 
"So, the result of prayer, has, never, been 
Compliance, with man's will, thro' change in 

God's : 
Its end to reconcile man's will, to God's, 
Or, to succeed achievement, by the spur 
Of supernatural aid, the weak and wise 
Hope, possible, to prayer— tho' science* lays 
Emphatic stress, on prompt denial, hers, 
That, God, has, ever, changed, or, even, could. 
The course, of fixt and changeless law, a whit. 
Law, absolute, unchangeable, is all 
We know, of God, and 'tis enough, to know. 
It proves God, first, impartial, and then, just ; 
Moved by no plea to kiss a favorite. 
The West conforms its notions of a God 
To the Eastern concept, without nerve, to swim 
Beyond the safety lines of Orient fear. 
A God and personal is man's conceit 
Of what, God should be, to accommodate 
His limitations : of the universe, 
Wliy not, as just, to, frankly, postulate 
It shuts God up within it, as, to say. 
It doth exclude Him?— that, so manifest. 
Appealing to the senses, why, nofc, true? 
Why, assume something, men know nothing of. 
To complicate that something, man perceives? 



TfiE REVOLT OF HEASON". 181 

Nature's mechanics, well, eliminate 
Volition, as, a factor— every pin. 
In Nature's gearing, indispensable. 
To that no fiat doth.— Unthinkable- 
God, if, a person, yet, no challenge, His, 
Conspicuous, as tlie Sun, had He desired 
Such homage, as men argue— no man, bade, 
To search archaic legends, or, for God, 
Or for his pleasure : gratitude had swelled 
Man's heart, unbestial, toward th' Source of 

life. 
Peer, of the linnet and the lark— yet, Lord, 
Consciously, of a sphere. 

—Dismissing fear, man's reason, at a bound 
Clears 'all the lines of savagery and fate, 
Scenting an epoch, as ^a charger— war. 
So, who would breed a hero in a babe, 
Toss him Mars' helm, a plaything, with the tip 
Of Agamemnon's spear. ^ 

—The State survives, in that, the rights of man, 
Armed, prove the overmatch of bigotry. 
Faith is no more, in issue, faith is dead : 
Eeligion ijiath no rights, but, such as man 
Elects to grant her— like archaic coin 
Man minted, yet, may shudder, to remint. 
That faith, erst, possible, to ignorance. 
Is possible, to ignorance, to-day : 
To cultured man, faith is impossible. 
Save, when, for reason, but the synomym, 
Tho', to tradition, prodding him, at bay, 
He feigns surrender— It is never false, 
That Truth may sleep and sweetly, on a rock, 
Here, both an empty stomach and a purse, 
Tho' in a fortress, if the whole world's gold. 
Let Error sleep, 'twere w4th misgivings then. 
Faith held a trump in fagots, but 'tis played ; 
So, in the gag, she held a winning card ; 
It, too, is played, and man's enfranchised lips 
Have, now, the vantage : true religion, hence, 
Persistent zeal to make, discovery 
Of man's relations, to th' obedient sphere, 
He rides, so safely ; while in every hair 
On all his scalp, a mailed, charmed knight^ 
Sworn, to defend him. To undo man, vain, 
To make him over ; once undo the world. 
It were undone, forever ; change man's 

thoughts, 
And thou hast changed the atmosphere, he 

breathes ; 
Eliminate his errors and retain 



l82 A MAMMAIj ONtif, 

Man unimpeaclied : for gallant seamanship 
Is not so much, to plow the shorter route, 
Thro' seas, tempestuous, as the safer one, 
With craft and cargo, neither, underwrit, 
Safe, in the offing. 
—To what reformer, hath the world cried— 

speak ? 
Its plea was, rather— for thy life's sake, hush, 
Th' occasion is not come. Not, ready, yet. 
Is, but, the felon's motto, who would breathe, 
A sennight, longer, free of the hangman's noose. 
Decisive battles shall be, those of peace; 
Grave resolutions, changes, in belief; 
But, to one challenge, blood be, freely, spilt, 
A menaced hearthstone : manhood picks its flint 
While, all the tatters, in tradition's flag. 
Fail to inspire a firelock. 

—What, to endure, were, that, which had en- 
tailed 
Evils, if, rid of worse, than those sustained : 
Hence, man arrests a TdIow, when, almost struck 
For error, oft, is the decajdng trunk, 
Vital, to still, support th', yet, tender vine. 
A custom, to do wrong, becomes a law, 
Quite irrevocable— while, statutes are, 
And are not, at men's pleasure. Yet, what is. 
However, false, or rotten, should not fall 
To fraud, or rapine— to an open purse 
For instant equity.— To save the State, 
Anarchy is a plea, by indigence, 
With wretchedness, gone mad— as rational, 
As, in the life-boat, to unship the oars, 
And give the helm, to chance. 

What heart, with dormer window, in it, beats, 
Or, ever, has beat ?— So, of secrets, there, 
That man had asked a Hindoo, of his wife, 
Who would pry into. Not, a living man, 
Wliile, true, of every dead man, when, alive. 
Had turned that organ inside out, a day. 
Unless a day, of days, exceptional. 
Man is a pagan as he, ever, was. 
Only, a better pagan : it is due, 
Chiefly, that man, to pity and to tears, 
Moved, gently, with the woman, at his side, 
Has reached a higher life than, savagery: 
Equality of sex ensued the blows 
That made the freedom of one, possible : 
Freedom, as, th' culture of the head and heart, 
An Arcliimedian lever, cleverly. 



THE REVOLT OP REASON. 183 

Tilting life's strata, upward. 

Eelieved, of superstition, all mankind 

Had, thence, full stomachs : what a simple cure, 

For human ills, to undo human wrongs ? 

Wherefore, or, whence, religion— few demand, 

So many take for granted, it must be. 

Of all facts, human, that fact, uppermost. 

The problem is not, if all creeds, alike, 

To any plea of conscieace, shall enjoy 

The favor of the State— but, rather, this— 

Are not all systems, equally, at war. 

With public policy and the known truths 

Of human nature— their foundations, laid, 

In faith, in th' Supernatural, a faith. 

That proves a sleuthhound, to the scent of 

blood ? 
The vices of religion, still, appal 
The shuddering ages : why not, fitly, close 
Life's frightful drama, with a miracle. 
Extinguishing them all, and, thus, sustain, 
WTiatever power controls man's destinies, 
Is power, supremely, human— and defeat 
That strain of savagery, yet, in man's blood, 
Goading him to idolatry— to Fear : 
Less ostentatiously, who still repeats 
Shameful prostrations— and the curtain drop. 
To such tempestuous laughter, as shall shake 
Thence, indigestion, from the ailing sphere ? 
'VVliat creed is true? if faith be made the test. 
All creeds are true, or, if sincerity. 
All creeds are true, to zeal and votive blood : 
A muddle for man's lunacy and not 
A topic, for his reason. Piety 
Is Nature's institution and not, man's, 
Eeligion, man's own venture. Let us think. 
Who utters this has prefaced saving prayer. 
What odium, still, pursues the manliest act 
Manhood had done— free thinking, thro' the zeal 
Of bigotry, enthroned, that, late, had thought, 
Had willed for man; had blest or curst his 

soul? 
But, for free thought, alone— what motive, 

man's 
To propagate his kind, in him, arrived. 
In man, arriving, at autonomy? 

Man, erst, -sold to the Devil, reason, late. 

Has made re-purchase of and hath paid down 

Enough to clinch the sale— her credit, prime, 



184 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

With the shrewd goblin, eager, for the sale. 

The World is learning, when, to hold its nose. 

With the occasions, when, to blush for shame. 

Light testifies against his honesty 

Of motive, roundly, who would play the fool, 

Tho' all the uses of the fool, are past. 

The magnitude of Nature is a blow. 

Dealt 'twixt the eyes of human vanity, 

And twits man of the savage, he remains, 

Behind a coat of lacquer. 

Eegret, to leave the world, not haste to go, 

Life, to enjoy— should be man's wholesome creed. 

Who carries too much luggage and goes, bent, 

Half-double, to traditionary wares. 

And swamps this life to vainly clutch life, 

hence : 
Who, his, a future state, ere this had known 
Somewhat about it : all have proven false. 
Affecting knowledge, thence, theirs, not the 

power 
To tell what they have seen or may have heard, 
A ruse, ere Paul's, to Hamlet's day, to ours. 
Nor is man born to gorg^ and be amused, 
And drop his playthings, to a life so spent : 
Fashion doth, by her vices, life such wrong 
Her leave, revocable, why not revoke? 
'Tis not discretion, tho' it were a God's, 
But, fixt and changeless law that rules the 

sphere : 
Man's Supreme Safety, in the arms of law, 
In Nature's silence, Nature, means man's weal, 
S(5me pitfall nigh, her warning voice Avere 
—An accident proves but an accident ; (heard. 
Its moral argument, more prudence, thence. 
A casualty, when Nature's science takes 
In hand, to search for friction, not design. 
Nature has given hostages to man 
For common law, unswerving— otherwise, 
Indifferent toward him— whose success 
Lies in conditions, harmonized therewith. 
Death, as an incident of time and space, 
Quite unadvised, her factor— man therein 
Plays a bold game against a gamester's hand, 
Whose trumps he would divine : so manifest 
A universal providence of law ; 
A special providence, man's own, or none. 
If strange, wherein? If nature man eqiiipt 
With powers to snatch a planet's mastership, 
She, man conceded further, privilege 
To build his fortunes, as he may elect, 



THE REVOLT OF REi^SON. 185 

With no suggestion, hers, but ample means ? 

Man goes to common death with tearless eyes : 

The living sigh and weep— the dying smile : 

Nature sits on the pillow, with her salts, 

Held to his nostrils, faint, and to no pain. 

Life has expired, gone out, or has been quenched. 

The fat of all the whales, whose flukes do lash 

Antarctic seas and Arctic, into foam, 

Burnt, in one candle, had not half sufficed 

To lantern one man, dead, across the Styx. 

Oracles of the dead were popular. 

In the earlier Ages : even, Cicero, 

Speaks of one, at Avernus, in his day ; 

So, Periander, centuries, ere, him 

Called up his wife Melissa, twice, or, thrice, 

Thro' the diviner's art, as, once, King Saul 

Had called up Samuel, to the witch's spell. 

Yet, the amazing grossness of the tale. 

In a man rising, bodily, out of th' earth, 

Vastly enhanced its credibility. 

With leason, then, a fact so consonant. 

Knowledge is courage, with her armor on ; 

No God dare think what ignorance had done. 

Faith advertising witches, gives to craft 

Credentials, yet, to juggle with the weak, 

The credulous, confronting, with their dead. 

In her, of Endor, seek the lawful dam. 

Of spirit-raising, e'en in Labrador. 

The spirit-raiser of this century, 

With his phantasmagoria, cleverly 

Evokes a spirit, clad, in ominous white. 

To th' eager fancy, of the willing dupe. 

That, in extenso, of departed friends, 

Advises him, in th' written characters. 

Of his vernacular : e'en, at the nod 

Of some unlettered boor, may Socrates, 

Or, Plato, make obeisance and respond 

T' interrogation.— In the Pythoness, 

Of Endor, as, of Delphos, half, her art, 

A voice, ventriloquous— hailed, verily, 

A demon, speaking from her ventral parts. 

With no familiar spirit, with an ob, 

Mulier habens pythonem, appears 

The witch of Endor— every pythoness. 

One by a python, or, an ob, inspired : 

Spirit, but, a false rendering of ob ; 

Its meaning, serpent, only : spirit, here, 

The bald assumption, that it ever is. 

Both, knowledge of the past and the to be ; 

All power, both righteous and malevolent, 



186 A MAMMAIi ONLY. ^ 

The Serpent-God is charged with : Voodooism, 

His vilest tjT)e of worship— Africa's. 

In spirit-raising and a hannted house, 

Of life, beyond, if, cogent, evidence, 

'Twere proof, at law, had been incompetent, 

Vice, to have mulcted in a halfpenny. 

One house, if haunted, one, m ten, were such: 

Since, possible, to one, to mj^riads, then, 

To ha^'e re-visited familiar scenes. 

Wliat pledges, by the dying, to return, 

And scourge their enemies, have, yet, been 

kept ? 
Tho' in what droves, wronged souls had slipt 

the gaze 
Of lynx-eyed keepers, to avenge themselves. 
If, souls survive men, dead, and, somewhere, 

dwell. 
With locomotion, hither, possible? 
Thanks, to the progress of heroic thought, 
Wlio, now, affects communion with the dead, 
Tlie law adjudges, quite, incompetent. 
To e'en make disposition of his gains, 
A ward, of justice : to this pass has come 
The evidence, of life, beyond, the grave. 
Ne'er, of the wise, of childhood, of the weak, 
Astounding hints are told, of life beyond. 
In vision, voice, or sign, inaudible. 
Men hail that, spirit, they conceive to be : 
Of which conceit, they would a something, make 
In other channels, baulking enterprise. 
To deny witchcraft, gives the Bible up, 
A rare Divine quoth, scarce an age ago : 
Yet, familiar spirits, that prevail with men. 
Of distillation, sprang, and, still, must spring, 

— Ti-ees were, with barnacles, whence, flocks of 

geese, 
'Twas, gravely, writ, three hundred years, ago ; 
Wlien, hairs, from horses' tails, turned wrig- 
gling snakes. 
Tho', still, a devil, to the vulgar, thrives : 
The dead, as vampires, rising from their graves, 
To drain the sleeper's veins; with the were- 
wolf. 
Death, in the beetle, ticking for his mate. 
With witchcraft and the royal touch are fled, 
let, e'en, to-day, are, scarcely, out of eight. 
Caesar was made a god of, tho' h(^ told 
The Senate, he was mortal— to which fact. 
He achieved Caesar.— Pliny, Cicero, 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 18? 

Were of the Sacred College, Caesar, too, 

With Cato, and divined, thro' the flight of 

birds, 
As, in the entails of the strangled beast. 
Th' will of th' Gods, whereto, Rome, humbly, 

bowed. 
Yet, Caesar fought a battle, in the teeth 
Of all the auguries and won the field. 
Wliat Augur, with another Augur, met, 
'Twas Cato said it, had foreborne, to smile? 
No greater Pontifex had, ever, lived. 
Than, Julius Caesar, yet the office shrunk 
After that Roman's death, till any monk 
Of Italy, had filled it. 

—When, late, Olympus shook his snowy crest, 
Astir, with Attic Gods, who, then, had dreampt 
Olympus e'er should fall, or, even, could ? 
While, God may be no mystery, at all, 
God is the standing problem of this world, 
Perhaps, in every orb, in all the sky, 
A problem, as profound : then, let us trim 
Our torches and stand firm— God must be ours 
As, well, as theirs, who would usurp His ear. 
Restoring man to Nature, were to bring 
Man, back to God, he has departed from ; 
Man's ablest theory, of God, still, none. 
Not, to fight God, but effigies of God, 
Who must endorse what mischief, light had 
done. 

—The man who fights a sunbeam a^nd prevails, 
Shall prove immortal : while the curious wait 
The day, fixt, by the hangman, to swing oft' 
A culprit, charged, with having lit a torch, 
No soul hath power to quench. 

—Behind phenomena, man's no concern : 
Herein, a phase, his life is taking on, 
That severs his allegiance, to the Past, 
That binds him, to the Future, by fresh oaths. 
A past, outgrown, is like a corpse, in state, 
Which, men pass by and pay due reverence 
For worth had, living. To experience, all 
Appeal is final, and except, to proof, 
Judicial, man knows nothing— tho' he seeks 
Amusement, in conjecture. 

—Authority, not, guns— were reason, thence; 
With dicta, open, for re-argument. 
As, man advances : there is nothing fixt, 
Unless, in mathematics, past review. 



188 A MAMMAIi ONLY. 

—What uses were religion's, should that proT-e 

A fable, and most infantile, of th' fruit, 

Inhibited, man ate of? Should it seem, 

No devil, then, was dreampt of— nothing, more. 

Than, a glib-talking Serpent did the act 

So famous, in man's annals, why, not, pause 

And raise the question of re-argument? 

More light were dangerous, only, to the Past, 

In its survivals. 

—If, dreary, the earth's dreary to a lie. 

The sun's eye is not evil ; it is man. 

To a lugubrious fancy, who sits down 

And thumps his breast, as down his aching 

brows 
He pours, disconsolate— ashes : let him rise, 
Extinguish Asia's candle and light man's. 
With wick, as broad as all humanity. 
When, t'h' hearts of all men throb, alike, what, 

then. 
But, a united world, by mountain chains, 
Eivers and seas, made nationalities. 
Yet, not divided ?— Every pillow, man's. 
If, eider-down, still, false to honest sleep, 
Let him discard, for sleep-inviting stone. 
That, true to human nature, shall endure, 
That, false, whoever saith it, must decline, 
Adjust the world, to fitness, man's, to-day. 
And by to-morrow's light, review the work : 
Whatever, man has done, man may undo. 
Nothing divine in his performances. 
Knowledge is doubt, pursued to verity ; 
Ignora<noe, lack of courage, to swear— nay. 
Doubt is no scandal, put on Christendom, 
But, Christendom's, on doubt. 
Hast thou, O Reason, marked his cloven hoof, 
That forked tail a goblin whisks at thee. 
So comet-like, with streams of sulphurous fire, 
As he moves to and fro ? He is that fiend 
Man hath hailed Satan, Devil, Beelzebub. 
Ye shall not sacrifice to hairy ones, 
Suggests the goats of Egypt— devils, thence, 
Of prurient fancy, late, in hoofs and horns, 
To medieval magic, consummate. 
Semitic writers had not heard a breath 
Of demoins, ere the exile— but return 
To Syria, laden with them. 

Why, dwell, on the invisible, whereto, 
Man is not, in a hair, amenable ? 
Who, if, related to it, were not blind. 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 189 

God may be matter, for, who, yet, hath wit 
To say, what matter is : the formula, 
God is a spirit is gratuitous, 
Since, who has proof, or knows a spirit is, 
Or, what, a spirit were, beyond a word, 
Man spake a child, tradition, still, repeats ? 
Assumptions are man's several cast-off hats, 
Stuft, in the pleading gaps of ignorance. 
For each conceit of God, altho' man's own, 
Th' unknown affords its leading element. 
Matter is no less matter, when the eye, 
Fails to detect it : th' invisible air. 
With all the cosmic forces of the earth. 
Argue, how spiritual matter is. 
And lend suggestion, to an adjective. 
Meaningless, if, not, hypothetical. 
The insect dies, precisely, like the man : 
Done, fencing, feebly, each doth gasp and faint 
Then, Death may heft his quarry : no man may 
Eelieve th' historic doubt, wherefore men fae 
For comfort to their gold.— If man could gee 
A spirit, girt for travel— wave adieu 
What Gospel, in that farewell ?— Ah ! a soul. 
Surviving man's decease, had made frank proof 
Of such survivorship, or Nature, once. 
Had shamefully betrayed man— yet, wherein 
Hath she misled him, once, to evidence ? 
Material forces, whereof, man may learn 
Thro' their supreme performance, proffer man 
Enough, to absorb his life, and nominat?. 
The fact, of matter, as that fact, alone. 
Wherein, man hath concern.— Spirit retires, 
A nomen, for a speculative fact. 
Defined, by terms, quite, indefinable : 
A sheer abstraction, constituting man. 
Of two lives, captor. 

—A moral world were not a Godless world, 
Tho', not adogma in it; while, the scent 
Of sacrifice, from common purity. 
Had found God's nostrils, spread, to welcome it 
The stitches shall be short in paupers' shirts, 
With th' purest morals climbing nearest God, 
Tho' from the devil's kitchen-garden sprung. 
So, penury grow sleek and fat, thereon. 
Man, in th' exception, only, has proved brave 
Chiefly, a coward, with the drooping tail. 
Of a wliipt spaniel : Gospel, thus, to man, 
Thou art a dupe, still, itching to be duped, 
A coward, to a graveyard. 



190 A MAMMAL. ONI.\ . 

—Who believes in Fear, 
Who hath a liver ?— To the honesty 
Of th' Ages, man's indebted, less, to men : 
Here, be thy fortress, all frank utterance. 
The farthest East is not an English mile, 
Nearer, to God, than is the fartliest West, 
While, the wind has changed and by the 

weathercock, 
It blows a gale, from the West. 
—Glory, what lexicon hath, well, defined ?— 
It seems, the sunshine on a pyramid. 
That tolerates the sweat, cementing it. 

—Envy, not, daggers laid a Caesar, low ; 
Had slain, ere him, ten thousand, lesser men ; 
More, since his murder. Ludicrous and strange, 
That, envy should possess a fool, toward him, 
Morally, past, his vision, as the star. 
Charted, remotest, in astronomy ; 
Had God, Himself, solved the anomaly ? 
The World is honest, yields to each, his due, 
But, pays him, at discretion : if, he starve, 
Opulent brass displays the world's chagrin. 
His bays grow, native, to him, who achieves 
Ere, votive, to his deeds, the plant takes root, 
Is, half, in envied leaf. Approval meets 
True merit, more, than midway to remark 
Its worth and fondly— ere, obstreperous fame 
Hath soiled its lustre. Whose, such obsequies, 
As that man.'s, buried, in the drenching rain 
Of a struck nation's tears ?— Nor, is it pomp. 
But, th' worth that may permit it, proves him, 

great. 
The lungs of glory labor with. While, true, 
Naught is so vile, as honor, paid the vile, 
No such dispraise, as from his callow lips— 
Whose, no conception, higher, than, a boor's, 
Of him, he would speak well of : 0, that ink, 
Had turned, as white as snow, in a fool's pen ! 

Whose, no misfortunes, his no test of strength ; 
Wliose grave disasters, may win Pompey's 

spurs. 
Ere, toward thie wall a man has turned his face. 
To close his eyes, in death, the world is his, 
Or, the world may be, bis. A bastard son 
Of gaunt Ambition, by a dairy maid. 
Is no such cross, as, had presaged a throne. 
Yet, be may turn the tables on tliis world, 
As th' Eoman turned them : Eminence, tho' ijot 



r 



hT: 




*HE REVOIiT OF REASON. l9l 

So much, to sit the highest mountain peak, 

As, to sit firmly, lower. 

—While, life may cheapen, man is growing 

dear ; 
Who should he better pleased to die, a man. 
Than, fall, a hero— and the argument 
Is telling on him : still, he hath essayed 
A lofty undertaking, to do right, 
Nor, swerve to custom. 

—The World is ripening into braver men. 
And abler Senates : no man's neck is wry, 
Of looking, backward. To the torture, due, 
The spread of man's unreason, with its hold 
On man, thro' his traditions. Light ensues 
The friction of free thought— it, often, true, 
A crude ungainly thought, licked into shape. 
Masters an Age, unmastered. 

While, invincible, 
Freedom is no tornado, that would sport 
With the world's crowns, but a frank Westerly 

wind, 
Which, neither, had fanned ar£on, into flame. 
Nor, toyed with murder. 

God's heart is all men's, to persistent cri-^s. 

For help, or God's a fiction.— Why not make 

An invoice of man's verities— and roar 

At his audacious lies, and fumigate 

Each temple, from the taint, Tradition's there, 

God's throne is menaced and God, held, at bay, 

By mutinous spirits in the universe ? 

Two eirors are not to be reconciled, 

But, both, exploded— to new views of God. 

Eliminate the supernatural, 

From all man's creeds and piety were left. 

Omnipotence refines itself away 

Into the cosmic forces, or, conceals 

Itself, within them— else, unknowable. 

Astronomy that taught, in India, 

Long, ere a Galileo, the earth, moves. 

Brahmins, anticipating hierarchs. 

Made haste, to silence, by anathemas. 

But, the right of speech has proved the power 

of speech. 
What, Nature is, man knows not, what she doth 
Science makes note of and wonld argue— how : 
Nature, found, ever, in the present tense. 
—Met, with the joint conditions of all life, ' 



192 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Science is striking from the steel, the spark 
Had fired the eager train— yet, possible, 
Science may penetrate the law of life, 
It, man's yokefellow, thence. 

Science, while, restive, neighing, for more suns, 
Magellan's clouds respond in countless stars : 
A hundred million orbs, within the scope 
Of human vision and each star, a sun, 
Like ours, with loyal planets, argue man 
Into the querulous mammal, that he is. 
Yet, scarce, a score, oL' the fixt stars do range 
Within man's mathematics— distances 
So slight, a star may fling a kiss, to star. 
So vast, that gravity must add a strand, 
To her best cable. 

—Men may not dwell in Mars or Jupiter, 
Yet, other life may, rather, say, it must : 
What orb, in Nature, rolls for ornament ? 
Each, for some type of life, the habitat. 
Man holds the book of Nature, in his hand, 
But, open, at the middle, with the first 
And the last pages, lost.— Nor, is it like, 
That the autocthones, of any sphere. 
If, having died, as, men do, live, again, 
To new conditions. 

Abridged, of its clear uses, till within 

A score, or so, of years— remark free speech 

With th' prodigies ensuing earnest thought. 

Is there a devil ? seems to argument 

The fabulous dragon, chained in Milton's hell, 

A devil, to man's intellect, is dead ; 

All stench but from the, still, unburied fiend. 

He may be living, who shall light his pipe, 

With the last spark from hell.— Thought, 

horrible. 
If, God had, by a fable, taught to man. 
The only vital fact in all his life. 
A. devil is man's blunders and mistakes. 
Against the fact of murder, what were hell. 
If, man's, no gibbet ?— against robbery. 
If, man's no dungeon? It costs, much, too 

much. 
To nurse the figment longer : Let us have, 
God sovereign and unvext, by any foe. 
No devil, but, the devil-of-all-fear ; 
To man's dismissal of a devil— none. 
—The devil, as a factor, is confest. 
In every vagabond's excuse, for crime, 



THE REVOLT OF REASON, 193 

Or, coward's palliation, of his dirk, 

Murderous, at midnight : it but reverence 

Still, for tradition, that doth countenance 

A tempter's instigation, which, the law 

So, glibly, mumbles o'er, as if she spat 

The nauseous fiction out.— While well ehe 

knows. 
That, men may kiss th' evangels— yet, their oaths 
Be, but, the falser, for it.— He who stakes 
His freedom, on the witness he may bear 
Well, winces, to the fact . to sulphur, hence, 
Wliose oath were itching, for a handsome bribe. 
His conscience, found, who sweareth before, 

bars, 
The iron, in them, flawless— competent 
To swear, as truly, as a God had done. 
Yet, he whose oath, were better, than, his word, 
Sug^-ests the value of a liar's oath. 
Man's dogma of a devil is the fact, 
That makes man diabolic— otherwise, 
He had, for his own lapses, no defense, 
Who had shunned crime, with tenfold watch- 
fulness ; / 
No tempter, man's, to saddle with his guilt. 

To ignore Satan were a masterstroke, 
Of godly humor : piety, itself. 
When, but, a genuflexion to the Past, 
An obstinate spine had mended, instantly. 
Man swings between the devil and his God, 
And would not offend either— hence, the phraee 
Good Lord, Good Devfl, his, most apposite. 
Who seeks to be the client of them both. 
O, charming Devil, thou, so widely, known, 
As, the Old Serpent, shouldst thou cast thy 

skin. 
Ere, housed, within another, dead, as Jove, 
'Twere a death-blow, to half, theology, 
O, miserable Devil. 

Man seems, so tickled, that his ancestors. 
Left him, a devil, he clings to his tail. 
With a tenacious death grip : let it go, 
man, the better, for thy waning health, 
The sooner, thou hast done it— 'tis the smell 
Of brimstone, that has done thy stomach harm,' 
And spoilt thy prime digestion.— Laughter 

seems 
That exorcist, of devils, to which. Time -_ 
►•■ 



194 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Shall, yet, appeal, with tears.— The devil's 

dead, 
Had credited with life, him, yet, unborn : 
A devil, neither, is, nor, ever was— 
But, sprang ol orient fancy. 
—No devil, what theology, but, man, 
In search of God, tho' haply in his arms ? 
Obey or die is martial exigence; 
Hence, the prime law of soldiership— a rule 
Less rigorous and guns, were of less use, 
To mouth defiance at an enemy 
Than to blaze homeward treason, thro' the 

breech 
Postpone not retribution, till men die. 
So doubtful if a devil be, the just 
Insist, the vicious for their wares, shall pay 
To brief forbearance. Dreams of heaven and hell 
Emasculate man's nature, yet, preserve 
His savage instincts, that forbid the law 
Of reason, to possess him. Man wexe, yet, 
Only, the more, a savage, than, he was, 
To postulates, laid down, in savagery. 
One lie, to flank another, fills the world, 
With unexploded myths and vagaries. 
Ages, of veneration, for a straw 
May give to it, the strength of adamant: 
A savage, if, in broadcloth, bat, the more, 
A savage, than, in skins. 

—Due, the doughty West 
To question power, unquestioned— else, were 

man 
What he was to the Eoman, or, to Christ. 
Freedom commends the fact, man thought aloud 
To voluble gunpowder, who, to faith, 
Had sat, unsexed, and marked each rampart 

rise. 
Constructed of whose skulls, an interim 
Of reason, to a fool, in cap and bells. 
Irony is a factor, that rebukes 
Man's greed of piety and pommels him. 
With the thigh bones of his deceased gods. 
Eeligious cant so nauseates the Age 
That, when man's stomach heaves, none nauti- 
cal 
Had typed its painful retch— yet, afterwards, 
Wliat health, man's, having spewed? Him 

consummate 
With th' crown of th' mammalia, on his head, 
A speculation, were too small a coin, 
Tlierefor, t' impeach the uses of this life 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 19§ 

The evil, dead, are damined, man's no hell ; 
The good, are dead, rewarded, man's, no 

heaven. 
If, but, in Nature's freezing cry of shame; 
Or, passionate praise, of duty, gently, done. 
Men are not, good, or, evil, to their creeds, 
But, to their actions— by what dogma, men 
May swear is futile. 

Time, but appends an exclamation point, 
To th' Moslem zealot's impious piety ; 
Him, lust and rapine halt, for frequent prayer 
Yet, th' faith of Islam is a cimeter, 
With a Houri's profile, carved upon the hilt ; 
Her creed, that deference, an Arab paid 
Semitic prophets, for the primacy. 
In Allah's favor. Wlien the lie has fall'n 
That rocks the East asleep and to lewd dreams, 
All paganism, moribund. Time, thence 
May score some signal victories for man. 
To th' East, Damascus— Glory, to the West, 
Is thrift, with culture, in her easy chair. 
To warmer colors, to a cliisel, whet. 
By the stone it coaxes into shapeliness; 
To th' nobler passions, voiced, in tragedy, 
To common life, in farce, with caustic wit, 
Handling hard-featured greed, culture may find 
Occasions, broader, than, her diligence. 
Man, with his face, set Westward, treats the 

East 
As a point of the compass, nil, save, when, at 

sea, 
Sailing his ventures. 

—From Temples of the Sun, to those of Christ, 
Lies th' track of th' stormy voj^age, man has 

made. 
Taking the soundings of his intellect. 
Man has, in fancy, cursed himself and shot 
A poison, thro' all Nature— beast and bird, 
With plant and insect, stung : while the d ep s^a 
Eolls o'er a monstrous curse, half, hinted, God's, 
In the terrific slaughter, waging, there. 
Yet, life doth pass to judgment, in each act, 
Eewarded, when, not mulcted, insta.ntly. 
No plea suspends, nor mitigates a hair. 
The judgment of that bench, whereto, all life 
Appeals in every breath, till, at the grave, 
Man has outlived his pains and his rewards ; 
Life's ledger, balanced, and by man's own pen. 
Man's first and final article of faith. 
Were, man is mortal ; his supremest act, 



196 A MAMMAIi ONLY. 

Were to confess it— while, his chief renown, 

To have achieved a faith, so rational. 

The revolution, Time inaugurat-es, 

Is, of opinion, when, stale creeds shall fall, 

Mythic and fabulous, as fall the leaves 

In Tropic forests and, as harmlessly. 

— Tlie World had made more progress, disen 

tliiralled. 
From myth and fable, in a solar year. 
Than, man has made, in his best century. 
No Eevelation, from a Power Supreme, 
E'en no occasion for one— is the trend 
Of all man's thinking— unless Eeason be 
True inspiration and continuous. 
—Hunger and cold demand an audience 
And they must have it ; fictions must give place 
To the clear fact, man is and must subsist. 
In this soft, mincing world of craft and lust, 
What education, for a maniac ? 
Tho', to lose this world, were to lose all, man 

hath. 
Just, as the Solar System seems, to drift 
Against a central sun, man's faculties 
Make for th' abstruser problem, than, what is ' 
In what, man had been, perfect— confident, 
Of better men, to new conditions, bred. 
Eeaison is supreme factor, in man's growth. 
Fancy, eluding justice, yet, at large, 
God, not, in reason, man-ward— not, at all ; 
Conscious election, man's, in all he doth ; 
So free, he feels not, never, felt the touch, 
Of any sceptre. 

—Appeal lies, always, in the last resort, 
To current reason: all appeal to faith, 
But to the regnant Powers, as touching God. 
Faith has arrived at th' crucial test, at last ; 
Into opinion, man resolves himself, 
With his attendant Gods. 
—To change of custom, in a twelve-month, man, 
Moslem or Jew or Christian, had forgot 
Half, he had, late, held sacred : What appears 
Incapable of change, in common life, 
Proves, oft, a habit, readily, dismist; 
Thence, as discarded, as a cast-off shoe. 
Give to the common mind a common start ; 
Without pre-occupation. to seek God. 
The West, s+ill, in an Asiatic rut. 
Is crying— Hercules ! 

College curriculum and public school's, 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 197 

Should pay more court to ethics and good will, 
Alms-doing, love and all the charities : 
The daily culture of the heart, itself, 
Half, education : to develop man 
Is not to freeze, the intellect to ice, 
But, in the kindling heart, to temper it, 
Till all its thinking, touches, somewhere, (man ; 
While, every purpose hath the ring of steel. 
—Depravity takes root, ere puberty- 
Despoils the blush of maidenhood, while youth 
Takes the shame-faced look, of secret sin. 
Let, sexual morality be taught. 
As it, yet, seldom, is, from th' nursery : 
While, every mother rears her daughter, pure, 
And every sire, his son. Fact, horrible, 
Ethics, as personal purity, oft, found. 
Lest, modesty be stained, imprests so late. 
Youth has become debauched, ere, cognizant, 
Life, stood, imperilled : culpable mistake. 
To have postponed such vital tutorship, 
Till, life enchanted, by the Siren's song. 
Draws near hier grotto. Character is first, 
Science and the humanities are, next, 
Else, education were a fallacy : 
While, sons reflect, they may excel their sires- 
Heredity may strike its roots, as far, 
As th' Norman Conquest. 

What a vast fund were Charity's, when God 
Had certified man's conscience. He were, 

pleased 
If, man's, no hunger, not a minster— His ? 
To squalor, wretchedness, to woe and want 
Voting the g)old and misdirected sweat, 
Absorbed in sculptured stone and classic Art. 
We know God, as a Law, we know Him not, 
With the conditions of humanity, 
Smirched, by the quills of Asia.— Man's fixt 

course 
By every compass must be henceforth, West, 
For points, still farther Westward— sailors' lore 
So much abounds, in phaiutom ships, in seas. 
Spectral, to th' Eastward. 
—Drop life, a dream and take up life, a fact. 
Life is not a probation, but an end ; 
The first and last of man— his cradle, grave, 
His expectation : yet, to live true men. 
And die, true heroes, seemeth this world's lack. 
Preach to man, courage, from his mother's milk. 
And ply him, with ambition : argue truth 



198 A MAMMAL ONLlf. 

Is all life's perfume and frank uprightness 
His saving glory. 

— Spiritus means, but, breath, or, life, no more : 

Life, in the nostrils, of both man and beast 

Was science, before lungs and oxygen. 

In, not, to suffer, may be to enjoy ; 

In sheer negation, endless happiness. 

The cultured ancient mind, found that, in 

death. 
Of th' vulgar sought for, in Elysian Fields, 
The common mind, yet, seeks there : No despair. 
Not, man's perverted fancy in the thought, 
1 soon shall cease, to be, but, in my deeds. 
Man seems a product of the elements. 
To science, in a toy. Nature conceives. 
Enjoys, a while, then, with its atoms seeks 
Amusement, in new ventures. Ere Christ was, 
Lucretius argued, of the elements 
Man was a product, with the earth itself ; 
-Democritus, yet, earlier, hailed the force 
In atoms. Chemistry, late, revels in. 
The ancient mind, thro', both, the Leyden jar, 
And crucible develops into ours. 
Insurgent light, as man's and Nature's own 
Transpires, the wheels of Phoebus' chariot, 
Whereto, fleet Time is hitched. 
—Man, far from restive for another world. 
Here, finds the game he thrives on, here, the 

fruity 
To which, his blood flows, vital : let him be, 
Yet, bid him, wiselier, to enjoy a life, 
He poisons so, with doubt, if, it be sweet. 
Life's minutes, seconds, hours are Babylon's, 
And 'tis enough, to garble time, by th' East, 
Life's pur-pose squaring, to th' Westering sun; 
Tho' thro' each week, breathing, by Hesperus, 
An atmosphere, charged, with the number 

seven. 
Mystical, in Chaldea. 

—He were a coward, e'en, at martial law, 
Shot, by the warrant of a drumhead Court, 
Who, light perceives, yet, dare not follow it. 
Light, ever, has been hated and is still. 
It hints so much, that makes men hate them- 
selves. 
Man had been tethered for five thousand yea^'^ 
Cropping lean sorrel— till insurgent, late, j 

His tether Eeason snapt, whose thymy fields ' 



THE REVOLT OF REA.SON. 199 

The quondam starveling roams. So, man, by 

stealth 
Has seized the dugs of th' fugitive, old dam, 
Skulking thro' fear, of covert enemies. 
It is not, yet, too early to ride, well. 
To th' lusty pack, unleashed, on tlie fresh trail 
Of pestilent foxes. 
Gunpowder, yet, asserts a privilege, 
Or. proves, a dynasty, legitimate: 
Man is, but, rational, in theory. 
In practice, nothing, unless muscular. 
Life, but a struggle, it seems fit, life is : 
Nature commits her bounty, to the strong. 
E'en at th' Equator : tho' the law of life 
Seems merciless and cruel, it is man's, 
Less, to gainsay, than, to its precept, thrive. 
Life preys on life from insect, up to man, 
Wliich, reason would not, Nature may defend ; 
Whose, may be other premises, than, man's, 
Wlience, her deductions— tho' such havoc grates 
On human limitations, horribly. 
Such profanation, too, of art, it seems. 
To paint a butterfly, to be devoured, 
Would Nature spake, tho', briefly— yet, she 

takes 
Occasion, to think otherwise and hath 
Her gentle, easy way.— Murder hath 
In Nature, an apologist, but finds 
Eeason, her hangman always. Evil, thus, 
If, meaningful, to Nature, signifies, 
Her august pleasure ; life, to breed and slay. 
Her occupation : life, of little worth, 
In th' eye of Nature, or, attains its worth. 
The weaker, writhing, in the stronger's fangs. 
Yet, the tiger-cat, so solaces his prey. 
With anesthetic purrs— to be devoured. 
Who knows, if, painful ? 
—Nature is reticent of her affairs. 
As, a superior, to a fool, of his. 
Her sighs seem, by the stronger, for more 

strength. 
Her jeers dismay the weaker; servitude. 
While, not a law of Nature, seems a fact, 
By her permission.— Man, incurious. 
Yawns, in the Tropics, slumbers, by the Pole, 
Immobile man, forever; curious man. 
Who shuns the Tropics and the Poles, alike. 
Peeps thro' all keyholes and may, yet, surprise 
Nature, disrobing. 
How^ to get money, is this, all, of man ? 



200 A MAMMAL. ONLY. 

By a whole 'heayen, two differ, yet, agree. 
To plow, together, to a yoke of gold. 
Success is, easily, first, of all the gods, 
Wliile, gold is second: yet, th' sanguine man 
When, midway up success, boasts lustily, 
As, if, stood, on its peak— the avalanche. 
In wait, t' upbraid him.— To an Age of gold 
Man's alter ego is a chunk, thereof ; 
All men found, willing to be plutocrats. 
Gold plays both lord and devil, to mankind 
In one and the same guinea and proceeds 
To settle the vext question, life or death. 
Gold is an optimist— while penury 
Dissolves with faltering hand the murderous 

drug 
And begs the question. Is man born, amiss ? 
How, born, to, simply, suffer, when each sense 
Strains, to admit joy, double ? Yet, doth man, 
To provocation, handle life and death, 
With perilous freedom. No accomplishment, 
In Cato, fallen, on his sword, at bay ; 
Nor, in a single Eoma.n : still, to live. 
All, one would live for, lost, is fortitude, 
That, on the act of suicide, had frowned, 
No manhood, in it. Live, whoever, may. 
And die, who cannot help it, well imputes 
To manhood, character— his, yet, untried, 
Who hath not met disaster, ignorant. 
Yet, what his loins are made of :— Wager not 
On that man, a brass farthing. 
—The way's as broad to honor as to shame ; 
Th' election, just as open— so, the chief, 
Of all life's prizes, fall, to diligence, 
Tho' a fool stumbles o'er a pot of gold. 
Wlio, in himself, believes, has the same faith, 
Which, at Olympia. won ; whose, faith, like 

this, 
May take a field; may sing himself to fame. 
May win the greenest bays that, ever, grew, 
May, in the Pantheon, fill an envied niche. 
A strong man's fame precedes him and makes 

clear 
The way, before him, as a herald had— 
The fortress, fallen, he had come, to take. 
Courage, or nothing— and all has l3een said 
Of man, in history, of man, to be. 
Men, who believe, in nothing, but, themselves, 
Are th' sceptics of success : luck has no place 
In expurgated lexicons— yet, luck. 
Unthrifty, brainless, has a serpent's eye, 



THE REVOLT OF REAjSON. 201] 

T' enchant a mortal.— Ah ! those crystal beads 
Thick, on man's forehead, there, most, right- 
eously, 
Have, cLuite, dismayed him : onlj^, not, to sweat, 
And man resolves life, happy— his resolve 
Futile, as air, confronting destiny. 
Sweat is ma.n's proper self and until found 
Man is impersonal : that, by a man, 
Worthy, e'en, if unworthy, eminent. 
Had come, of labor. 

Bravado is not courage, nor, of kin. 
'Tis quite as much true courage, to /retire. 
From that, invincible, as, to assail 
What, valor may reduce : the crucial test. 
What, courage ? what, temerity ? so true. 
Never, were laurels won, of bravery. 
If, fear were not legitimate, wherein, 
Year, fitly, is invoked : all fortitude 
Is the unharnessed valor of the field. 
Stretched, in the shade, asleep. 

Theirs, eyes and ears; theirs, lips to freely 

speak, 
Men mean to realize the privilege 
Against a poss.ble, nay— thus, to forestall 
Decapitation : Since, Opinion rose, 
Man hath a factor, in a possible god. 
With man's true weal, at heart. 

—Only, a mammal, man shall prove a man. 
Supremely so— the trite delusion, gone, 
He pines, immortal, restive, for his wings. 
Man's whole concern is here, his proper hence, 
A grave or fitlier urn— while, he, so sad 
To his belief, in what has never been 
Nor, even, shall be, may yet, learn to pmile 
To his conviction— I'm a mortal man. 
A corpse is but, the balance sheet of life. 
Profit and loss, to Nature, argued thence. 
Man's, if, a future, 'twere not, left in doubt, 
It had been, as the lode-star of his life, 
Whose breath, seems, but, a trick of oxygen. 
Death, tho' the common incident of life, 
Proves, always, its alarming accident. 
Death does not learn, how much, this life is 

worth 
Beyond, some other, ere, he snuffs it out ; 
In men's relations, deafh betrays no stake : 
A valve declines its office, a man dies. 
Nor, was it needful Alexander'? hands 



202 A MAMMAIi ONLY. 

Should hang down the bier, empty, to prove 

man 
Takes nothing, witli him, goxie. 
—Why, should man crave two worlds to perfect 

him ? 
Why, may not one exhaust his utmost worth ? 
An aspiration, to be more, than man. 
Is capable ol being, were as false, 
As no ambition, man's, but, gluttony. 
Man, more, an expectation, than, a fact, 
Invites suggestion ; make him, what, man will- 
But, build him, larger. 

Tho' not disfunctioned. Nature stnis the heart, 

In life, suspended, she resumes, anon; 

A sleight if hers, the Eastern Juggler's, too ; 

Suspended animation, verified, 

In him, he brings into apparent death, 

Interred, a corpse, he resurrects and wakes. 

When flowers have bloomed and faded on his 

grave. 
Herein, a cue to immortality, 
Howe'er astounding, possible— in life, 
Suspended five, or e'en five hundred j^ears : 
A seeming corpse, in metal, tightly sealed 
Labelled— Awake him, hence, a thousand years. 
To life suspend and life restore, in man 
Thro' some material force, had stretched the 

term 
Of life to cover vast duration, hence ; 
The sleeper, throughout centuries, unaged, 
At his revival ! ! 

Man, if the only being who could think, 
Born, to this planet, it might raise the point 
Is man, immortal ?— that, he thinks the best 
Or, thinks the most, suggests but primacy. 
Ne'er, to know, he has died or changed his state, 
What consolation, sweeter, to him, dead ? 
Unconsciousness the fabled gate of hf^aven : 
Wliile, having died and consrions, still, the hell 
Of ante-mortem fear. Ma.n has assumed. 
Matter, incompetent, to do an act. 
It seems, impossible, matter had done— 
Altho', he doth not Icno^v, what, matter is, 
Save, that, he had divided it, until, 
He fails to make it, yet, divisible. 
In man, no constant presence of a, force 
Or, factor, immaterial, as, of mind, 
Plstinct, frorn matter, as both positive, 



THE REVOIjT of REASON. 203 

And unremitting : tlius, our mental states 
Are, but, brief snatches of our consciousness. 
Or, scraps of our experience : mental power, 
Never, continuous, seems an exercise, 
Capricious, due the forces of the brain ; 
Not, always, Ms, when he invokes it, most : 
ISIan's intellection, at the will of fire. 
With, oft, unseasoned fuel— mind affects 
The fleeing quarry, not the baying pack. 
As the complement of matter, mind appears 
Its yoke-mate, always ; never, met, as mind 
Singly and unattended— wherefore, then. 
Matter and mind as if two entities ? 

Is not that bird a tailor, whose, a nest, 

As truly stitched, as is a courtier's sleeve? 

In mathematics, quote the honey bee. 

With hexagons and mitres, the despair, 

Albeit, of joinery. Th' historic ant, 

Tho' she excels, in thrift, ignoble wars 

To capture slaves, on her late spotless disk 

Cast obscuration. Thro' the beaver's skill 

His dykes compete with hoary craftsmanship. 

So, in the spider, strategy, itself, 

JSIay learn to take a fortress ; from her web, 

Of diabolic craft and cruelty, 

A revelation. Of the elephant, 

But, to review his thoughts, had broadened ours ; 

Wliile, in thy horse or dog, society. 

Of fashion, wearied.— If to stress or strait, 

The insect and the beast had hope foregone. 

Ere, ha^^ng striven bravely, to avert 

Or flee disaster— no election, theirs, 

In crises, noA-^el ; no discretion, craft. 

Theirs, no expedients— instinct might have, 

then. 
As reason hath, a kingdom. In all life. 
Selection and heredity obtain; 
Intelligence, e'en, courts comparison 
In lower life, with higher : if, in man 
His limitations are elastic, still 
Man e'er complete, completed, eons hence; 
In life, below him, it is plausible, 
Development is finished, in much life. 
Therein, conspicuous— tho', on much, beside, 
Improvement, yet, thro' eons may attend. 
Plant, beast and man grow, each, by common 

means, 
Each, an adept artificer of life, 
Tliro' the devoted bioplast— astir. 



204 A MAMMAL OISTLT. 

In th' leaves, the flesh, the tissues o£ all life. 
Why, not, a spirit, in the cowslip, bee, 
Whose, if phenomena of matter, how, 
Man's, if excepted ?— From a simple cell. 
To culture life, up to intelligence 
May be a process, nature had enjoj^ed 
Past, peopling orbs, with unrelated life. 
Special creations— if, with power endued. 
So, to have populated sea and la.nd. 
Authentic time, too short, to demonstrate 
Such transformations, as had been the key 
To Nature's methods— to analogy. 
In the larva and the tadpole, argument 
Postulates, Nature would develop form, 
Not, specially, create it. 

Memory displays the cells whereon are stampt 
The truths of INlagna Charta, or the fall. 
Of youtli's first idol or a mother's own- 
Nature, wdiile, foremost in photography. 
Strung, too, the wires for the first telegram. 
The same material force that tints the rose 
May bloom in Eubens, or in Angelo; 
An incorporeal essence, as of soul, 
Constraining matter, Orient fancy— ours. 
Of sleep, dreams are not a phenomenon 
But, of a wakeful brain, with part asleep ; 
Whence, inconsistency and the mad freaks 
Of unleashed fancy : thus, the brain presents 
In dreams, a maudlin state like drunkenness, 
Its master functions, somnolent. So, to affirm 
Mind is the source of matter seems untrue, 
As matter stands revealed : the argument, 
The universe, of something, precedent. 
Is a result, seems more a mighty stretch 
Of fancy, than of wisdom; what, we see, 
Why not eternal ? Wliat analogy 
In man, whose source was something^ to sustain. 
A parallel, in Nature, that her source 
Was, indeed, Nothing ? 

Of natural powers, since man knows nothiag 

else, 
Than thro' deductions from phenomena. 
Why postulate, in man, some principle. 
Of higher rank, to operate in him 
Results, no more astounding, than are wrought 
In sentient life, below him, or in life 
If vegetable, only ? it so clear. 
Matter, to science, tenders every force 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 205 

That, fabled spirit, proffered ignorance? 
Yet til' iimnatwial appeals to pride 
As if it stood life on ;, hig-Iier plaae 
Than matter, singly, had : thus, dualism, 
In that, it flatters, so bewitches man 
That his vainglory bumps against the stai^ 
And spills the mammal's brains. If, not to 
man's 

To whose assent, or why, doth flattery 
Stand guard, at every entrance to the heart, 
To w^ave distemper in, or evil out ? 
Wliy ignore matter and then substitute 
For that, live senses demonstrate a fact. 
That, whereof five are silent ? or why clothe 
A bald hypothesis with faculties, 
Powers, matter proves analogous to hers, 
If not with hers, identical '^^ 
To the idealist, the universe 
Eesolves into ideas and this globe 
Exists, but to the mind, conceiving it ; 
INIatter, more a sensation, than a fact 
Man has yet failed, or to annihilate 
Or grind to atoms. INIatter builds for man 
A braiiu to apprehend lier : at his birth 
Plays the accoucher— met with oxygen, 
She gives him such', anon: his mental force. 
Consistent with his growth, heredity, 
A constant factor, in the equity 
Of natural ethics. If, idealism 
Be held in^-incible, of Priestley held, 
A compromise, of matter and of mind ; 
Matter and spirit, interchangeable, 
Thro' spirit, w-ell materialized, as thro' 
Matter half spiritual— as Science then 
A hundred years, nay, even more, ago, 
So nudged his elbow, that his quiU has left 
Mortality behind it, as the fate 
Of soul and body, but to pledges, Christ's 
Of resurrection, onlj-— to success, 
Science, exploiting matter, has achieved, 
Her forces are of yesterday, and raise 
T\ew questions to new premises and proof, 
. E'en raise them daily : within forty j^ears. 
Logic, not proven false, but Nature true. 
Science is but the art of seeking God 
Within his workshop— there, or nowhere, founcl. 

Man's, a new cult, let it develop him, 

Abreast w^ith reason, until cast aside 

As outgi'own scaffolding : all light appears 



206 A MAMMAL. ONLY. 

The product of man's brain and what he seeks 

Is th' fuel to increase it.— Why may not 

Man's reason argue God, in well-girt loins, 

With presence decent, yet attract his eye, 

Kindly, as had an anchorite ?— Should Time 

Be, other, than, duration, infinite. 

Save, as, a time-piece makes time, fractional. 

Or the Sun's humor, scoring solar years ? 

An incident of Nature, while, she may 

Incline the axis of the earth, for him, 

Man hath no cycle, publishing its close, 

In an extinguished Sun : man tho' extinct, 

The Sun had, still, vocation— not an orb. 

Had marvelled at the absence of the Lord 

Of a decaying sphere— it, with the Moon, 

Yoked, in th' astronomy, belike, of Mars. 

Time shall not close his cycle, to a wink. 

From any God of Asia; 'twere the God 

Of all the Continents, whom Time had given 

Prompt heed and dashed his hour-glass. 

—To th' Christian Cult, life is a thousand fold 

Purer, on Western soil, than, when it sprang 

From th' soil of Syria, watered, with the tears 

Of th' living Jesus— since, 'tis here, the fruit 

Of Western culture of the charities, 

Christianity, wherein, unfabulous. 

Man waits a resurrection from himself, 

The grave, wherein, he rots : in every man 

A priest of Nature, by anointing oil. 

No stale decoction, man's— man, hence, confest. 

Not, in a poor apology, for man, 

But, in the mighty conqueror of himself. 

Some change, of reason dreaded, ere, it be, 

Men are amazed, when certified 'tis done. 

Yet, the world, unalarmed : No danger lies. 

In change, when Time is ripe for it, complete, 

Ere, argument has ceased promoting it. 

To human nature apply less the drag, 

With freer motion to the whiffletree. 

Cosmic, or chemio forces seem, to think. 
Unconscious intellection, in all life, 
Seems building leaf and fibre, bone and brain ; 
While, conscious intellection, sovereign, man's, 
Presents, in him, what flower and plant and tree. 
Seem, half, endued with— an apparent gulf, 
Nature may span, as readily, lae that, 
Between a beetle's wing a-nd butterfly's. 
The wounded tree does not curl up its leaves. 
And, meekly, bleed to death, but hero-like, 



THE REVOILT OF REASON. 207 

Assailed, would staunch its wounds and rescue 

life: 
Wliat, so like reason, what if, not the force 
That thinketh in all life, from daisies up ? 
So, man is taught t' insure his Eddystone 
Thro' that amazing genius, in the oak, 
"Well anchored, for a hundred years, or more. 
So, in the tree, stood, hapless, on a rock. 
There, to have starved and fitly, but, for wit 
To urge its roots, by the best route, athirst, 
For nutriment, till had— men are advised. 
How, to take heart, who dare, the darkest hour 
Life is a property of Nature, fixt, 
And indestructible : the fact of death, 
Tho', quite unfathomed, life's phenomenon. 
Death seems but Nature's shuffle of the cards 
For a new deal and more absorbing game. 
Annihilation is a term that hath 
No meaning in it : to annihilate 
An 'atom were impossible— when, death. 
Hath done its worst, the fact has, simply, 

changed 
The relationship of atoms— what, if, more? 

Assume not, fear is normal, prove it bo. 

All man,, in Nature, finds for fear or dread, 

Is from th' possible friction of her gear. 

Ours a recovered world, a world, redeemed 

Of human reason, from th' atrocious crimes 

Of human fancy : man is competent 

To live a higher and a purer life. 

Met, with the fact, his, but, one life to live. 

If tho', a brief one ; than, to be misled 

By th' cruel expectation, of one more. 

In every family, the head, thereof. 

With Prince and Patriarch, filled the role of 

priest 
Until the priesthood had become a caste 
Or. heritable office in a tribe : 
An organized priesthood, thence, a church. 
Man's, yet, the slave, with gilded fetters on. 
He wore, ungilt, to his theocracy. 
Savage or Pagan, Christian, Composite, 
When organized religion shall have ceased, 
Its vices had departed and its worth. 
Were by man's heart, conserved. To current 

time, 
Eeligion, thrivep, a social institute. 
While, the fabulous, that would authenticate 



208 A MAMMAL. ONLiT. 

Its origin, is bolted, bodily— 

To give t'he social instinct, holiday. 

—Should floods of tears 
O'erwhelm the immaculate Sun, till every beam 
Ean sorrow, man were happy, it so cheers 
Grief, to remark profounder grief. Yet, death 
Since, not, for man a meditated pang, 
But, Nature's own supreme economy- 
Let us have done, with sighs. 

—To charge delinquency, 
On Time and flog him in the public eye, 
Amendment, in the lash, were heroism. 
Yet, to be flogged, of Time, were cowardice. 
Man's mischief, in the East, man, in the West, 
May thwart, at will, without apology, 
To dead barbarians— charging that, on them, 
They, glibly, laid on God. 

—The Earth, a plain, girt by the surging sea, 
Immovable, yet, by the Sun and Stars, 
Lianterned and tended— no inhabitant, 
To potentate a planet, except this : 
To such conditions, all religion, dawned. 
Man wandered West, with fables, on his lips. 
From Asia, and retailed them, till the air 
Grew black with poison— so that children 

screamed 
At goblins, met, while ma.nhood, howe'er brave. 
Did pale and flinch, at hell. How ludicrous. 
That, argument is offered to sustain 
The sacerdotal figment to an Age, 
When, Virtue hath some honor, from mankind. 
And Vice gets, half the lashes, it deserves? 
Men appear, eager, truth, if, but, a groat 
And error, tweh'-e pence, to elect the last. 
Half the gold expended on religious pomp. 
Diverted to raise cereals, had insured 
Man, against f amino, for all time, to be. 
A revelation, that shall demonstrate 
Penury false and shall not foster it, 
Thro' pledge of diadems, in life, to come. 
Shall wear a seal, divine, whate'er its source. 

Remark Arcturus, that prodigious Sun, 
Itself, the lesser, by a million fold 
To some Superior Orb, and, wherefore, hail, 
To God, outranking all, a pnltry sphere. 
Worth scarce a groat, in the commerce of the 

skies ? 
God's pleasure seems whatever man finds his, 
Wlio, while, dependent, as a sparrow is, 



THE REVOIiT OF REASON". 209 

On Nature's bounty, to investiture, 

Wields, both, her purse and sword. 

—Values have been inverted : thus, faith, late 

Worth all man's blood, is scarcely, worth a drop, 

While reason hath the value, faith had, late. 

Pure morals with monogamy appear 

The soul, itself, of culture while the key 

To social progress : all appeal, besides. 

What aid th' imagination may supply 

Th' positive moral forces of the brain. 

But, one foundation, moral, whereon stands 

All, tliat is sacred, man's or, secular. 

It reason, always; all security. 

For the continuance of any fact, 

Eeason, as, yet, has not outgrown its use. 

To men's conceptions of Him, God remains 

The same as if man had none— to adore, 

God, the Supreme, were homage— ignorant 

Of what, perforce, God is, altho', it seems, 

God is, in all things that exist, or God 

Were elbowed out of His own universe. 

Men, at their best, where, men are, at their 

worst 
Is that anomaly, the Social State 
Presents and ever may : Goodness, supreme. 
Is a fact, common, evil would impeach 
But, finds few juries, hers— the course of life 
Preserves, invincibly, an upward trend 
While, side by side, thrive vice and virtue, best. 

Faith-ridden World, with such sore withers, too. 

Each shame-faced rider, still, insists, he hath 

A warrant for his rowels, and displays 

Th' attesting beeswax.— Yet, in man, himself, 

Lie all the fundamentals of belief. 

Faith may accept a lie and yet, be faith ; 

Faith, never meritorious, in itself. 

But, in clear demonstration of the truth. 

Of th' object of it. 

—To what knees are firm 
The World seems, well, worth fighting, dying 

for; 
Tho' men the (dice of fortune, cast to a sky 
Astir with groblins, to a future, void 
As man's historic stomach. Liberty? 
To think aloud is liberty ; to think 
Behind the teeth, still, thraldom : but to shut 
The mouth and open it, but to the ebb 
Or, flow, of Power, and with no stake, therein. 
Were life, an oyster's. 



210 A MAMMAL ONLT. 

Ours is, perhaps, the fittest time, to doubt, 
And test that, most unquestioned : argument 
Has raised man to his thro.ne and crowned him, 

sat, 
Of flints, disarmed, and of his furs, disrobed. 
No man is here, thro' being prest, to come, 
Nor, of his own volition ; being, here, 
Who casts about for warrant to remain. 
An inexhaustive factor, light appears 
To stretch man's limitations, palpably : 
Man, thus, the evil he may wallow in, 
Yet, the restoring bath.— To th' human, man 
Hath grown, who had not to the Supernatural, 
An inch in more than forty centuries. 
The powers of Nature seem intelligent. 
Seem, not, blind forces, that to positive law 
Betray significance : man's the same right 
To say, of Nature, that she thinks and acts 
As, of himself, he cogitates and wills. 
This is like that, that unlike something else : 
Hereof, comes Knowledge— thus appearances. 
Are all men know as true ; perhaps, thence all 
Man ever, may know— knowledge, otherwise, 
A guess, however, shrewd. So, competent. 
To that, she undertakes, how, Nature thinks 
In man, in every cricket, every tree, 
Waits demonstration. 

—To th' ancient mind, the fact of life, itself, 
Suggested, early, a material soul ; 
An immaterial soul, the fact of thought. 
From Aristotle, it iabsorbed the Greek, 
Engaged the Eoman, when he sheathed his 

steel ; 
The pagan fathers of the Church, pursued 
A vagary, they left, much, as they found 
It, Aristotle's— while the Schoolmen, thence, 
Eelanterned the dark problem, with the rays 
Sickly and few, that through their cloisters 

crept : 
And when Descartes had located a soul 
In the pineal gland, there fell a calm 
Till Science, late, invoked reargument. 
And as a product of the brain, itself, 
Drew from material elements the mind : 
His thoughts, immortal, but the thinker, not. 
All men are mortal, life, immortal, man 
In whom the race continues, hope is that 
Hereafters are all made of. Wlio shall say, 
A being lives, in all the universe, 
Who may not like a burnt-out candle die ? 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 211 

—Man's place, in Nature, is not optional, 
A cog, in Nature's gearing, he may not 
Divert his office : not t' invent a man 
But, to educe one, glory. Let man be, 
As Nature made him, only, teach him, how, 
To better handle tools and, bravelier, think : 
Thought, wiselier, argued a phenomenon 
Of nervous force, engendered by the brain. 
Who dare tell Nature, matter shall not think ? 
Advising her, what powers are Nature's own- 
She might retort— What powers, not, matter's 

mine? 
The brain, no organ, but the mind itself, 
Were there humiliation, in the fact ? 
If matter thinks, it is her matter, how : 
Tho' Science may insist 'tis her concern. 
As a mechanic. Nature builds a man. 
Then, winds him up, as Nuremberg, her toys, 
For one, for ten, or for a hundred years. 
The fact were stranger, if man had a soul 
That must survive him, by a thousand fold 
That dissolution, absolute— it puts 
The query, Wliy, a body, man's, at all ? 
Or, how, a spirit could inhabit it ? 
Assuming that, unproven, spirits be. 

—Mind appears. 
But, Matter's thinking side— all thought, itself, 
A product, of burnt carbon : Science lays 
Her hand, so foully, on humanity, 
Man dieth, like a dog, yet, as a man. 
To exit rational.— Why not, quite, true, 
That, all life reasons, from an insect up. 
Since, plants elect their food, reach after light. 
Hold their stems, plumb, and fortify their 

roots ? 
Tho' chemistry and reason differ— how? 

To burn, the body, dead, less harrowing seems, 

Than, cast into a pit, to slow decay. 

To worms and putrefaction : theirs, an urn. 

With all therein, well purified by fire. 

That was a man, or woman— the bereft 

Eye, but with pangs of Nature, gently, healed. 

The marrow freezes, at th' possible fact 

Of premature interment : thus to add 

To dying, terrors. Nature hath withheld. 

The fact of death, precertified, by fire. 

Had to the dying, death, well-nigh, disarmed. 

No plea for inhumation, but, wherein 

Convenience, only, as th' instinctive act. 



212 A MAMMAL ONLY. 

Of life, untutored : to Semitic faith, 

To quicl^ly hide from sight the unclean corpse : 

To Zoroastrian dreams, to bury it 

In the vain hope of resurrection, left 

To the discretion of the elements. 

—The Eoman reverenced his ancestral dust ; 
Oft, when imperilled, bore it off with him : 
Tho' reverence, ours, had sought ancestral 

worth- 
Ancestral ashes, in mausolea, 
Sealed, against accidents of fire or flood, 
Or personal fortune.— Pestilence bestrides 
All winds from th' Eastward, when the rags of 

faith 
Eeek, with the plagues of Asia— while the 

graves 
By the plague-stricken Cities of the West, 
Still, menace life remaining, and to fire 
Humanity appeals, as, if, to God. 

So, to treat others, as men would themselves, 
Of men be treated, has stood nations where, 
Men are found foremost— tho' the Golden Eule 
Were but a ruse of supreme policy 
Pure selfl'^ness had prompted, if, in fenan. 
No higher motives moved him, to just aims. 
The brotherhood of man awaits the fall 
Of man's traditions of a variant God, 
Absorbed in man's affairs— with frank farewell 
To all, 'acclaimed, as Supernatural. 
God is not writing history, but man. 
With his impatient quill, hence, why not more 
Mistakes and errors, were more pertinent, 
Than, why, so many. History is, yet. 
But a continuous roar of musketry 
Since powder was invented— while good steel 
In lusty heroes' hands, dealt death for death, 
Embroiled in riotous, fierce argument. 
With th' dogmas of tradition, ere Troy rose. 
Evil bears witness, to its turpitude, 
Less, by some ordinance defining it. 
Than to a law of Nature, every man 
May grow as versed in a& a Chancellor. 
Yet, th' world is better than it, ever, was, 
Tho' half its good, while, all its evil rides 
In the omnivorous sheet that every morn 
Aids his digestion, who has broken fast. 
Ere, lead grew vocal and the mystic wire, 
Then, what assassins brandished, fear^-^^-. 
knives 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 213 

Against detection? While, what argument 
For murder, in cold blood, when vigilance 
E'en, at her best, rode, post, but, at her worst, 
Slept on the spoil, herself? 

—The poet's topic is whatever, man's; 
He, not a shepherd, only, with his lute. 
His, Neptune's trident, strungi, and roundly 

swept, 
Of storm and tempest. 

—Of Nature, ever, on a gala-day, 

In kirtle green, with cowslips. In her hair. 

Life is enamored and would wed with her 

In cheery light, to the sweet song of birds. 

To gesture speech and notes of music, moved, 

The cardinal points, in vicinage, to man— 

His genius, freed, has argued hell, itself, 

To Etna's bowels and reputed heaA^en, 

To th' Fortunate Isles— life, to th' elements 

Quit, of all curse, unless from light, itself : 

Whose brain, of water, eight parts, out of ten, 

Like a Sargasso Sea doth bear, afloat, 

Life's varied scenes the eye hath there imprest, 

With life's transactions, if, for fourscore years, 

Imprisoned in its cells. Thus, Art may, yet. 

Unfold within the Artist's studio 

The panorama of a splendid life. 

From the pictorial canvas of man's brain. 

—He who burnt 
Whale's blubber, to illuminate the night, 
Inflames a subtle agent, that may, yet 
Prove both the sphere's vitality and man's. 
To triumphs, fairly, heralded of Art, 
The cities of the old world and the new. 
May, hourly, panoramic views indulge. 
Each, of all others— cosmopolitan, 
Thus, the untravelled, of each hemisphere. 
Nor, witch, nor, wizard, left— if heretics. 
Not sacerdotal vantage, to ignite 
A seasoned fagot— while, in common sense, 
Rolls such a torrent, as shall overwhelm 
Each fortress, Superstition huddles in. 
That, hailed the moral government of God, 
Seems, the continuous action of a force, 
In man, styled, reason, that pervertpd, oft, 
Transpires, the poison of false premises. 
So, the cause of man, is, always, God's, own 

cause, 
^oason, supreme, in reason, man's, to-day : 
Appeal lies to the future, no appeal 



214 A MAMMAIi ONLY. 

To the dead ages, but, to analyze 

For virulent poison, their exhumed remains. 

Free speech, still, freer, to increasing light 

Has closed a devil's annals, in a roar 

Of festal mirth, in volume, thrice as loud 

As th' fabled wail of damned souls, from hell. 

Man's horizontal chin reflects the West, 

He, late, am Asiatic, with the stoop. 

Of sixty centuries, of faith and fear. 

More faith, in man, were no less faith in God 

Whose course toward man, apparent, argues 

man, 
Left, so to trim his fortunes, as he may : 
God, satisfied, to let the mammal have 
His head and take it : past all argument. 
Joint with man's brain, the forces, of the 

sphere. 
Do sway the naughty world. 

Eeligion fades, less, into what, than why. 
Had all religions, man's, resolved to none. 
Within man's heart, were heaven, for that dis- 

mist. 
Man's brave aistronomy has clomb too high 
To dare peer down, at the diminished man : 
Whose phj^sics are most eloquent, of force 
In vital atoms— and whose chemistry 
Invites a God, to her alembic stir : 
When, as of unity, all seas partake. 
In th' able swimmers, with a town, afloat, 
Within their several hulls; of armaments 
Had plowed Salamis under, as a lark ; 
Of flying chariots, that fraternize 
Dissocial man and to the offices 
Of sympathy, devote him— half, the Agie, 
A conquest. Iron's, with a ring of gold 
Thrust thro' her nostrUs ; th' enfranchised man 
Reining his genius forward, to the spur 
Of fresh invention— Avhile his fertile art 
Has made of every man, Briareus; 
E'en, gives a drop of sweat, like consequence 
A river of it had ; of man, himself. 
Whereof, grave expectations, were th' result 
Of moral mathematics— not, the man, 
Erewhile, a piteous homunculus 
Outelbowed, by his peers; an underling, 
Who, when, his shackles had turned into gold 
Argued chains, joyous- but, the braver chief 
Who, with a broadsword, argued liberty, 
His lips ineloquent : of thought, itself,' 
Contingent on no past, but, on the fact. 



THE REVOLT OF REASON. 215 

Man thinks, and dare maintain his right to 

think, 
If, to his thighs, in blood or bridle rein. 
Yet, truth has oome, to tarry, bloodlessly, 
Whose ensign, white, she means to carry thro' 
The hottest of the battle, still, unstained. 
A world of clansmen is the world that is ; 
A world of brothers, the world, yet, to be. 
I am a Eoman, hushed, I am a man; 
I am a man exploded Eome, herself : 
I am a man is, both, the argument 
And fact, of human unity, when come. 
The rights of man include the right to look 
Within the chalice, ere, he empties it. 
Man is, in treaty, with his intellect 
That hath, in hand, the fortunes of this world : 
All creeds fast merging into— man, for man ; 
Done, the world's ordnance, publish it to Mars. 
—Who fights Apollo, with Achilles' spear, 
Hath no advantage o'er his flaming shield. 
It, midway, had consumed the spear, tho', sent 
No matter, by whose arm. 



THE END. 




feA 



»^Si^ 



MEMORIAL 



ALFEED, LOED TENNYSON: 



JOHN EDWARD HOWELL. 



COPYRIGHT 1893 

BY 

JOHN EDWARD HOWELL. 



NEW YORK: 
THE HOWELL PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

35 & 37 VESEY ST. 



ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON. 

OBIIT OCT. VI.. MDCCCXCII. 

A Poet, dead, at fourscore years and three, 
Fallen on vantage ground, with knife in hand, 
Fresh, from Jiis thrifty vines, still, menaciug 
Growth, half in doubt of, spared— in Tenny- 
son, 
Far less surprised, than pained a busy world : 
From his own Isle, as if, to brighter skies, 
Than Surrey's, who eang, long, with voice 

enough 
To fiU the earth— nor, had he thought, to die, 
Near the World's Maelstrom, urging his return : 
Genius, with scarce a parallel, in song 
Wherein, with lyre, thro' more than sixty years, 
Strung, for his instant touch ; whose patient 

art 
Had filed and polished what the hardy few 
Who climb the top of Ida had iiung down, 
Reckless, if splintered fragments, to mankind. 
Drunk, with delight, thro' simply breathing 
there. 

Honor is not the echo of one's voice. 
Pursuing fame, his quarry, but th' assent 
Of all men's reason, in a swelling aye, 
That o'erhauls merit, unsolicited— 
Albeit, stupendous folly, greatness seems. 
In such, as well, might have avoided it. 
Pay no attention to a mouthing gun, 
Unless a genius prime it : yet, 'tis true 
If, aU roads led to Eome— Eome built the roads ; 
So, thoroughfares, well-beaten, men have built, 
Tho' leading to their graves, thro' opulence 
Of genius, goodness, gold ; devotion finds 
Something, for love, where she erects a shrine. 

Fame, at its height, is like a tidal wave. 
The rippleis of all envy, swampt therein. 
Yet, honors that o'erwhelm, do humble men 
Bred, to sustain them, for men sound them- 

Oft, much, expected from them and the lead 
Finds bottom, quickly— thence, so competent 
To wear their laurels, with a regal grace 
Which so commends them, every honor seems 
To perch below them— they, with names at 

death 
Left to survivors, whole— all winds of Fame, 



Thence— constant as the gales off Hatteras, 
As, off Cape Horn, frost and inclement seas. 



Ah ! me, to love not— or, to be not loved 
Stamps finis on life's volume, dull and thin. 
Bard, of the gentler passions, from whose 

strings 
Love pays her court to Nature, yet affects 
The garb of Fashion, stately, circumspect. 
With fewer blushes, for her slips, than mar 
Much elder psalmody— the stainless girl 
May, to his measures, culture maidenhood; 
Thence, wives may learn to prize fidelity ; 
While, erring husbands pause to ponder him, 
As, the true spouse loves his true wife, yet 

more— 
So sweet love is, or seems, a Master's gift. 
Whose pure, pale grace enchants the lily, 

more, 
Than, painted charms the license of lewd eyes. 

How oft, some lyric, the impassioned lyre 
Smote, by the breath of Spring, gave off, at 

morn. 
Lives, to see e'en, the Epic of an age 
Imprinted on rare vellum, to applause, 
Expire, the lining of a yeoman's trunk. 
So false, his seership, that involved his Muse 
Even, a Milton hailed his masterpiece. 
In an inglorious Paradise, regained. 
So, when, our Bard, of the Six Hundred, sang 
'Twas the explosion of a magazine, 
At daybreak, or, at midnight— while his Muse 
Charmed with the fragments, scattered at her 

feet. 
Wrought a mosaic of immortal words. 

If, thou hadst prayed the Sun, where, yester- 
night. 
He slept— his anger had kept thee, awake 
A sennight, thinking : what, if he, his flame 
Should snuff out, as a candle, to enjoy 
Sleep, in delightsome darkness, how profound 
Men's execration of the innocent sphere. 
Caught, napping, once, as men do ?— In the 

Muse, 
True courage halts to wince, not wincing halts, 
As Valor rolls her cheers down the broad aisles 
of Time. 



A genius is a lunatic, till when 
Pronounced success crowns him, a prodigy, 
Thence, every cur that bayed him long and 

loud 
Whines to his kennel : so 'tis, ever, true, 
An Age must have its laugh o'er ere prepared 
To reverence a teacher— as, with him, 
England bears to her Abbey, so, with one. 
Whose Muse was railed at, half a century. 
Yet, genius is born, always, with a caul, 
The secret of her destiny, her own : 
Were it not so, a Wordsworth had not sung, 
Nor, had a Tennyson found, in hi^ youth, 
The kernel of the Tennyson, revered; 
Nor, did a Shakespeare, or, a Milton sing, 
To motives, half, so urgent as— I must. 
The Poet, like the Orator, contest. 
Is, man in earnest; half the minstrel's art, 
Half, the divine afflatus, earnestness. 
A poet is his own Age, luminous. 
His Mu^e, an Epos of th' heroic Age ; 
His genius, nowise, subject to the lash 
Of avarice, whence, to unseemly welts, 
Dandling a crock of giold : iwesy had 
No function, if inutile— a-s an Art, 
At peace, with Phidiais, Titian, Angelo. 

Met with the stage, where life's stale comedy 
Still, holds the boards, he had nor jest, nor leer, 
Nor wit, nor humor, for the sweltering pit, 
Eaiely, a gleaming shaft for Fashion, sat, 
In gems and gold, tired of the humdrum play. 
Fashion's supreme, with life, or death, at 

stake. 
Or, but a Brummel's waistcoat— yet, "roho 

smilets ? 
If, gold but stay hiis ladder at the foot. 
Gold may roll murders down, as he mounts 

up; 
The core of half the evils of this world 
Is— money means too much ; whence, sorcery 
Had disenthralled this money-getting sphere? 

A blade of grass contains that quantity. 
Unknown, in Nature, while, no star presents, 
Than, may a leaf, a problem, more profound. 
For high debate, when girt, he whet his steel, 
With logic, whose deductions were the fruit 
Of his own vantage, not of lesser men's. 
He hath an audience, whom men applaud, 
Or, men may censure— tho' his argument 



Must wait man's candor; life is positive 
And to the friction of a stirring Age 
Excels all augury ; grieved, to endure 
Cowards, who hibernate, when dangers lower, 
Yet, from their covert slip, to skies serene. 
The Thinker i^ the summit of this world, 
Which flies its colors thence; if, Tennyson 
Hath broadened man, a whit, or emptied him 
Of one delusion, 'twere a coronet. 
So well becomes his bier, let's leave it there. 

Clear, to the Poet's vision, Somerby 

Rose, with its Brook, that flows forever on. 

While men have come and gone, still, come 

and go ; 
So, from the Poet's heart, the Vicarage 
Contends, thro' In Memoriam, for a place, 
First, in the Thinker's own philosophy. 
— O Poet, to have lived so harmlessly, 
To have won fame and riches, rank and eaae, 
Yet, to prize friendship— while, the painful 

stare 
Of admiration, striving to endure— 
What didst thou lack, thou wouldst not, Ten- 
nyson ? 
Minstrel, who found, in duty, ably done, 
Eeward enough, e'en his, no Laureate's bays. 
He wore to such remark , as Wordsworth had— 
Him, death, restored to Alfred Tennyson, 
Bequeathed to th' English Language and her 
heirs. 

He sleeps, by Browning— Browning sleeps, by 

him: 
In genius each, as the antithesis 
Of his bed-fellow, yet in oneness, both 
Respond to genius, from Queen Bessie's day 
E'en to Victoria's ; while, to culture, each 
Appeals, for homage : genius, whence, or what, 
Half, undefined, but, when uncovered, known. 

That is immortal, which a century 

Of doubt, debate, or partial pens, survives, 

Tlience, no man's dictum weighs a feather's 

weight 
Against the common verdict, rendered worth, 
Voted immortal, in that, Time hath failed 
Absorbed, by living men, to gag some, dead. 
Fame, come, of thinking, level, with the mass. 
Hath, oft, the ring of silver ; lastttig fame 



May, e'en, premise a stomach, querulous, 
To roar, the lustier, in dead men's ears. 
Such glory sours the stomach of the base 
As fires a brave man's heart; who fights 

the truth 
Tears his own flteh, hath his own wounds to 

dress. 

In crystalizing truth, in matchless gems ; 
In scouring life, unlovely— humble— proud, 
For worth, to cheriish, Tennyson excelled : 
So, when the Knights of Arthur, to his lyre. 
Wake, harnessed, for intrigue— in chivalry ; 
He- cuts the gems, snatched, from her turbid 

streams 
He, swearing, by St. George, for England, 

lived, 
Would breathe her sunshine, in her moonlight 

die, 
Yet, where, all men would seize his skirte, 

they may. 
There, broad enough, to whisk an age along : 
The world were one man, only— man, complete. 
As, all the world shone in his countenance. 
To, rather, believe, nothing, than too much. 
Preserves an empty purse, for sterling coin : 
Since, sayings are not true, for being old ; 
Antiquity embalmed a thousand lies, 
For one sound maxim of experience. 
Opinion, to the palate of the world. 
If, there be marrow in it, were a dish. 
Not served, too often : so when reason lights 
Her torch, man blushes to the accusing flame, 
But, for his passions, just— since, he reveres 
The thing he hates, in unaccepted truth. 
It is no fiction, but, a verity. 
That, men are, inly, better, than they seem. 

Not, falling, silent, to a stealthy blow. 
Our Bard had cheery exit— from his Muse, 
Who, scarce, in deatli, had parted company. 
Oonfesaiing inspiration, he had thrust 
In Cymbeline, his fingers, stiffening, there : 
Of inspiration, all he sang shall live. 
Should Time neglect to water it, shall sprout, 
To vernal suns, in virgin Boil, anew. 
Companioned, by the Past, wherein, it must 
Survive itself— wherein, the Future may. 
Companioned— while, men love The Beautiful. 
John Edward HowEiiii. 
New York, Oct. 15, 1892. 



\tJu 



